Bible reading-week 4

Here are the passages for this week!

Sunday - Genesis 41-42
Monday - Genesis 43-45
Tuesday - Genesis 46-47
Wednesday - Genesis 48-50
Thursday - Exodus 1-3
Friday - Exodus 4-6
Saturday - Exodus 7-9


I have thoroughly enjoyed this weeks reading. It amazes me how much extra you can learn when you use a commentary...and how much longer it takes!!
Let me know how you are doing? and...

What is something new you have learned?

Catechisms pt. 1

One of the ways we use in teaching Hannah the truths of God, is a book titled Teaching Truth, Training Hearts, By Tom J. Nettles. In chapter 5 there are Catechisms for young children. Here is Hannah reciting chapter 5, #'s 1-10.

Do note that I am trying not to laugh...It was cracking me up that she was twisting!! I have no clue why she was doing it. Today...she can recite up to #12.

Hannah can also open up the book and ask "us" the questions(verbatim!!). It is pretty cute, esp. since she can't read.

Play Group...pt.2

Last week, we went to the Zoo for Play Group. Here are the pictures.

The Van was more fun to play in than looking at the animals!

I LOVE this picture!!!! It is my favorite. They are trying to find the pygmy Hippos.

Kara, Maggie, Hannah and Paige.

Play Group

These are some photos from Play Group 2 weeks ago!

Asher and Benny...in matching outfits!

Asher, Hannah, Benny, and Abby.

Justin and Hannah

Everyone...(from Left back row, then Left front row). Kara, Hannah, Justin, Abby, Anna, Asher, Jack, Benny.

The walk home...

Hannah is just pretending...we thought it would be cute for the picture!!

Emus

The Emus are one of Hannah's favorite animals at our Zoo. Next to the Meerkats and the Pygmy Hippo's (or as she said the other night "Higmy Pipos").
Kids are so cute!!

Here are some fun facts about Emus.
Thank you Wikipedia!!

The Emu is the largest bird native to Australia. It is also the second-largest extant bird in the world by height, after its relative, the ostrich. The soft-feathered, brown, flightless birds reach up to 2 m (6 ft) in height. The Emu is common over most of mainland Australia, although it avoids heavily populated areas, dense forest and arid areas. Emus can travel great distances at a fast, economical trot and, if necessary, can sprint at 30 mph for some distance at a time. They feed on a variety of plants and insects.

The Emu subspecies that previously inhabited Tasmania became extinct following the European settlement of Australia in 1788; the distribution of the mainland subspecies has also been affected by human activities. Once common on the east coast, Emu are now uncommon; by contrast, the development of agriculture and the provision of water for stock in the interior of the continent have increased the range of the Emu in arid regions. Emus are farmed for their meat, oil and leather.

Enjoy.

FLC

This past Friday and Saturday, Dan and I went a marriage conference. It was a part of the SWI classes I have been taking.

Friday evening we enjoyed a nice candle light dinner.

Bible reading-week 3

Hello,
I hope this finds you well. I was reading tonight and realized that you need next weeks verses! Do remind me if I ever forget...which I think may happen sooner than I'd like.

Sunday - Genesis 22-24
Monday - Genesis 25-26
Tuesday - Genesis 27-29
Wednesday - Genesis 30-31
Thursday - Genesis 32-34
Friday - Genesis 35-37
Saturday - Genesis 38-40

You'll have to let me know what you thought of Job! I have to admit...that I had always thought he (Job) found out why he was put under those trials/tests. Wow, it sure pays to actually read your Bible. It is amazing what you can forget from past reading!

Again I'd like to suggest a commentary for you to use with Genesis. I am going to use the New American Commentary on Genesis. I understand that it is HUGE, but it was:
1-the one Dan recommended, and 2-the one I liked best out of the 4 I looked through.

Have a great Sunday, and enjoy your worship with the Lord!!

Yeah!!
One of our Favorite activities of the Fall is the annual Hot Air Balloon festival here. Next week will be our third time going. Hannah especially loves Chuggles the Cow.

Happy Fall to everyone.

Don't Worry!

Here at Southern I've had the opportunity to be a part of some amazing Bible Studies and Classes. This past Tuesday I had the opportunity to sit under Mrs. Mohler, the presidents wife, and hear a little Bible devotion on "Worry and Anxiety in our Lives". Here are my notes, sorry they aren't as good as the real deal(and I don't have the time to write out all the verses so you will have to look them up)...But I think you will get the general idea and hopefully learn something that will help and encourage you this week.


What is worry? - It is the opposite of Faith. It is a painful uneasiness about the future. (Please do not confuse this with depression, they are very different).

Lets ask ourselves "what are my faults that are causing worry in my life?" Once you know what they are you can better understand how to control them and then you can "Take them Captive."

Taking Anxiety Captive:

1. Matthew 6:25-34
God knew we would struggle with worry. That is why he gave us so many verses to help us out. Worry and anxiety is a lack of faith in God. It is a sign that our faith in God is not rooted in his word!

2. Philippians 4:6
Take them (our worries) to God!!! PRAY! Do not let your prayers be vague and meaningless and repetitive. The more vague our prayer is the more vague the answer may be, and that could cause us to miss it. Vs. 7 gives us the promise that God will give us a peace and that should give us a hope.

3. 1 Peter 5:6-7, Psalm 55:22
Again we need to be in prayer to God. Let him know what you are concerned about! He CARES for you!!

4. Luke 10:38-42
Jesus pinpointed it! He was only going to be there for a few minutes. This was going to be the memory of Him that they would have forever! Martha needed to calm down and sit with Jesus and drink in all that he had to say and teach them. This is a good lesson for all of us to learn. We could all use a little time out to spend with God.

Lets overcome this Anxiety:

2 Corinthians 10:3-5
We are led by the spirit! When a worried thought enters our minds lets look at(and/or pray about it) in 2 ways. Does God say it is ok to have this thought? If so than keep it. Does God want me to get rid of this thought? Then get rid of it and immediately go to Him in prayer for help.

Habakkuk 3:17-19
He (God) has overcome our worry. He won't give you anything that you can't overcome. Mrs. Mohler gave the illustration of a person climbing a hill. Some of us have to climb taller hills than others, but God is right there with us the whole time! So, be grateful for your hill...no matter what size it is!

Daniel 3:16-18
Do we have the Faith to endure? Can we serve God no matter what? Do I have a "But if not, than___" like Daniel and his friends. Meaning if God doesn't answer our prayer the way we want, we will STILL serve him and endure until the end. And we will be praising God no matter what happens to us. I'm going out on a limb here, but I am guessing that most of us aren't going to be put in a fire today...but we could use this analogy on a much deeper level. What is our "fire" this week? Am I praising God through it?

Tools to Fight with:

1. Prayer - be diligent in this. Ephesians 6:10
2. Meditate on Gods word every day - and KNOW it!

If God cares enough for the Birds, how much more He cares for us! We need to continue to seek to be the Godly women he made us to be (or men). Psalm 37:4 - we need to trust him.

Final thought!

Because we live in a fallen world, Suffering is inevitable(!) BUT worrying is optional!

Zoo Day

Today we are going to the Zoo!!

I'll post more pictures later on.
Have a wonderful day!

1- Year Ago....

Wow!
I can hardly believe it has been a whole year now since Hannah's accident. Although she relives it every time we go into Blockbuster, it just doesn't seem like it happened all that long ago.

For those of you who didn't know us then, she was running around Blockbuster (after we had repeatedly told her to stop!) and she tripped and fell and sliced her cheek open on one of the shelves. I guess God was trying to teach her a lesson on obeying your parents!...But I am sad to say that she didn't get it.

Here are the pictures.
WARNING:
If you don't do blood, then you may not want to look at them.

This was Hannah after we had cleaned her up and taken her into the Clinic. She is waiting for the Dr. to get ready to stitch her up. Look how happy and not worried she looks. If you look close under her arm you can see the blood stains are still on her shirt. Also, look how young she looks. It is amazing how much they can change in 1 year.

This was the next day. She had to wear a band aid for a few weeks along with some cream.

This was a few weeks later...I'm not sure of the exact date. But it wasn't more than a month. I realized while we were waiting for the procedure that some children are more prone to accidents and ER visits...and Hannah is one of those. We haven't had to go back yet this year (thank you Lord!!), but we sure have had some close calls, and TONS of band aids have been used here in our house!!

Thanks for visiting my Blog today.

Bible reading-week 2

This week, I'd like to challenge you to start a journal. I am going to also. I have been reading a little about them in a book I'm required to read for my class. It is called "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian life" by Donald Whitney. He is a professor here at Southern. Here is a little from ch.11 on Journaling.

A Journal can help you in your quiet time with the Lord, by helping you to understand more what you are reading, it can help you to evaluate your spiritual walk more, and understand and examine ourselves more thoroughly that we might otherwise do. It can help make our meditation on Gods word more meaningful, it can help us to better express our thoughts and feeling to the Lord, we can remember His good works better, and we can better clarify what we are learning.

"The Journal can be a mirror in the hands of the Holy Spirit in which he reveals His perspective on our attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions. Since we will be held accountable for each of these at the final Judgment, evaluating them by any means is Wisdom!"
-DW

This isn't much, but I hope it will encourage you in your walk with the Lord this week. Remember that you can use any type of Journal, it doesn't have to be "pretty." A piece of notebook paper will do! And even if you choose not to start one...just please be reading your Bible!!! That is the more important anyway.

Here are the chapters for this week, if you are reading through the Bible with me. I do hope that you guys have found a good commentary to use. I have found mine especially helpful this week as we are reading some stuff stuff in the book of Job.

Sunday - Job 32-34
Monday - Job 35-37
Tuesday - Job 38-39
Wednesday - Job 40-42
Thursday - Genesis 12-15
Friday - Genesis 16-18
Saturday - Genesis 19-21

I am so amazed at how much I am learning and am glad for all of you that are praying for me, and doing this with me. In case I ever forget to give you the passages, we are going to finish Job, them move back to Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus ect...

Hannah's Dance

This is a little video clip of Hannah Dancing to Owen's Rap CD. The following day she listened to it again and kept walking around saying "Word!" It was so funny!!
We got a kick out of it and hope you do to.

Happy Birthday John

Happy Birthday John!

We hope you are having a wonderful time in Branson. Sounds like fun.

From Left:

Clark, John, Donna, Dan...and Hannah.

Bye Bye Benny Boo Bear

These are a few pictures of "Benny Boo Bear" that I have taken over the past year. We have enjoyed getting to know him and his parents! Benny (for those of you who don't know) is moving to Florida in the morning. His dad Josh took a position at a church there. We are very sad to see him and his parents leave, they are such good friends to us!! But we do recognize that God is at work in their lives and has wonderful things planned for them in Florida. We wish you all the best Josh, Cari and Benjamin Vincent!!

We Love you Benny!


We had the pleasure of watching Benny during the school year 06/07. During that time he went many places with us and enjoyed lots of Diffey moments with us.

Play Group at the Zoo. Spring 07

The pictures of him in the "pink" shirt are his last day with us in June 2007. It was a bitter sweat day.

This is Benny enjoying a nap while we were at Wal-mart getting new tires on my car. Both him and Hannah were very well behaved that day...considering we spent many hours there!

Happy 1st Birthday !!

I think everyone BUT Benny enjoyed his party...well, maybe Cari didn't enjoy the cake making!!

This is a picture I took of Hannah and Benny on his first day with us. I barely remember him being this small.

If I remember...they are patiently waiting for their breakfast.