Category Archives: Gabby Mom Posts

Never Gonna Happen

 

I received this Eternal Encouragement product with rolling eyes as I read the title of the product I was to review. I really had no desire to read the piece. The topic of this months review is also the topic of one of my and my husband’s most repeated place of conflict. We have two big topics of conflict that all of our disagreements seem to center around… communication skills and today’s review topic… time management.

 

I so look forward to eternity because time will no longer be an issue. I mean really, 24 hours in one day just is not a lot of time… especially when this body of mine thinks it has to sleep… I liked it much better when I was younger and could function magnificently on just a couple of hours of sleep… now for some reason both my mind and body rebel against me if I ever get under 5 hours.

So reluctantly I opened the file and began to read… with all my excuses and reasons for knowing that whatever Lorrie had to share would be completely irrelevant to our family and especially to me… because she has no clue what our life is like. A schedule, a routine, well it’s never gonna happen in this house.

Ah yes, my rebellious spirit at work!

So I began to read (while in the midst of my latest marital disagreement on time and my husband’s concern of my mismanagement and over-commitments) and… well… ugh.

Would you believe that Lorrie had the audacity to address every single excuse I had… I mean really, the nerve of the woman!

So attention moms this is probably well worth the read… It was for me.

I am well aware that each day the Lord gives me is a gift and it is meant to be lived purposefully and for His glory. These hours are His… I am simply a steward of them. I must come each day before Him and sit at His feet to see what He would have me do with each day… but I also should come and sit at His feet and ask Him to help me to direct each week, each month, each year…

  The mind of man plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

Did you know that the word “time” is used at least 726 times in the Word of God? At least 726 Scriptures refer to time… that’s crazy… crazy and I am guessing that makes it important as well. So my first time management mission will be to manage the time to put together a time management schedule under the advice that Lorrie shares…  and well we will see. I know that I am tired of being tired, and tired of being late because it took me at least three trips back into the house to actually get everything in the car so that I could even leave to meet one of my commitments, and I am tired of time just getting away from me…

   There is an appointed time for everything.

And there is a time for every event under heaven—

Ecclesiastes 3:1

God assures us that we have plenty of time for everything that He has purposed and for every event under heaven… If He said it I believe it so I guess I better get a little more serious and purposeful about this time thing.

*** I received this product from Eternal Encouragement for an honest review.

 

 

 

Supper Time

 

Well, last night I cooked my first real meal in our new home. We closed on our house on July 26th and began moving in that day. We had some strong men come from our church and they helped us get most of our belongings over to our new home that following Saturday and then some wonderful women at our church and my mother-in-law prepared some delicious meals for us… so we have thus far survived on their dietary blessings during our settling in time.

I began reading Lorrie Flem’s book “What’s For Dinner, Mom?” before our move around the 1st part of June. However I was surrounded in boxes, all the cook books packed up, because we were supposed to be moving, and well cooking was not at all anything I desired to do in the mess and stress we were living in.

You see cooking stresses me out all by itself.

When my children ask me “What’s for dinner, Mom?” I usually respond with “FOOD!

and if you’re hungry you will eat it no matter what it is”

So the book was closed and then the internet was disconnected and the pots and pans and dishes were packed up as well.

Now we are pretty close to being settled, all our supplied meals have been depleted and eating out quickly loses its “fun” and well you can only have so many bowls of cereal for supper before the husband has finally had it… so I opened up Lorrie’s book again.

I was encouraged.

I was encouraged because I saw that she was just as much a train wreck in the kitchen as I. So after reading the first several chapters I was inspired to prepare a meal for my family and inspired to plan to always prepare meals for my family.

So yesterday morning I layed out the chicken to thaw, Googled a 5 ingredient or less recipe, decided on some sides and was ready to have an answer when my family asked “What’s for dinner?

Then 30 minutes before time to start dinner, I changed my mind on the meal… (yes, see stress, lol)

I saw another recipe, but needed more chicken, so out to the freezer I go, into the microwave defrost the chicken goes, a whole new plan for sides is thrown together, oven is preheating, water is waiting to go to boiling, and I am cooking.

So after only two hand burns, and one hour of prep and cook time, I was able to say, “Supper’s ready

Now Lorrie’s book is filled with tons of ideas and lots of words of encouragement.

 

 

The book is really focused on bulk cooking and utilizing your freezer. I don’t know how well the bulk cooking would work in our home, but she has encouraged me to think about and I just might try it…

However even if the bulk cooking is not for you or your family this book is well worth the read. It did at the very least inspire this woman to enter the kitchen and to begin to see feeding my family as part of my ministry to them instead of something like “Ugh… really why can’t you people just have a sandwich…” 

 

*** I received this product for free from EE Magazine for an honest review

 

 

Marriage, Motherhood, and Ministry

 

I have been listening to Lorrie Flem’s audio Colorado Power Pack bundle. This bundle includes eight hours of godly wisdom for wives and mothers. I have not had the opportunity to listen to all eight hours due to some Internet connection complications we have been experiencing in our home (if you have read many of past blog posts or follow me on twitter I am sure you are already well aware of my frustrations with my Internet, but anyway…) however, those that I have been able to download and listen to have been very beneficial to my heart, mind, and soul.

 

I listened to a Queen and Her Castle at just the right time (God has a way with timing doesn’t He). I listened to Lorrie as she shared about how my home is the greatest sphere of influence that I will ever have for the Kingdom of God. I am a woman who is very involved in the ministry of the church. Today I am the Children’s Ministry Director. Before that I taught Precept, and I led Children’s Church, and taught Sunday School. I have served in the children’s department, the youth, the college and career and the women’s ministry. I also am involved with special ministries outside and inside our church that minister to the body of Christ in our community.

These are all very important to me and I believe that I have been called by God to serve in every area that I have ever served in. However, none of these should come before my service to my husband and my children. I am first a wife and mother. As you can see from the list above, these ministries have changed. God moves me here and then there, but my husband and my children are the same. They remain. They are who will be with me through what ever life throws at me. Therefore they should hold priority.

Lorrie is very clear in presenting this truth. She also is very clear in making a valid point that as I hold my husband and children and home in their proper priority place I should do so with an attitude that reflects that this is done so because I love them and count it all joy to be able to love them. I should never resent or have an unseemly attitude towards the ministry that God has given me as a wife and a mother.

The world wants me, as a woman, to forsake anything or anyone that gets in my way of succeeding in modern society’s idea of clout and prestige. How foolish would I be to believe that a moment in the spotlight would be worth forsaking the ones that I love more than life itself. Even if that spotlight is a “Christian” spotlight.

The God ordained ministry that God has given me first and foremost is wife and mother and I am not to look at this calling as though it were “baggage”. I am not “trapped” by my husband and children. Being a wife and mother is not something that is holding me back from being all that I can be.

Even by those in the church we hear over and over again how being a wife and mother is a drain on your womanhood and your life. We gasp when someone marries young or has children early in their marriage and we act as though they have just put a bullet in their head and committed ambition suicide. It’s truly insane and backwards. I dare say on the very brink of a reprobate mind.

I can receive no greater honor than to know that my husband and children are loved well by me.

 

An excellent wife, who can find?
For her worth is far above jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
And he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good not evil all the days of her life….
Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her…
Proverbs 31:10-12, 28

 

I loved how Lorrie points out that the Proverbs 31 woman was not described by a man. This passage of Scripture, this wealth of wisdom, was given by a woman, a mother, taught to her son, as she shared with him the kind of woman he should seek as a wife.

Dear mother, never ever lose sight of the impact that you have on the very foundations of society. Wife, never lose sight of the impact that you can have on the soul of your husband as you choose to lay down your life for him. Not because you have to. Not because he deserves it. Not because it looks good on Sunday… choose to lay it down because Christ chose to lay His down for you.

Your marriage and children, your ministry in your home, should always come first. However, I do disagree with those who believe that if the marriage and home is struggling then you should drop all ministry work and focus on the marriage and family. I believe this makes marriage an idol. I also believe it takes a person away from the accountability of knowing that others are depending on the success of this family. We must remember that marriage is not about having our own personal needs met. God uses our marriage, our family, to impact the lives of others, and the eyes of those others are always on us, and I think that’s a good thing. We make better choices when we remember that others are watching us.

I also believe that stepping completely away from ministry can cause even greater resentment towards one another and could end up pulling your entire family out of the safety of the assembly. It is possible to re-prioritize without forsaking what God has called you to do. This is when it is time to share your struggle with those who can help you continue to fight the good fight of faith. Many times we need outside eyes to see things in the correct light.

So if you are needing encouragement in the area of marriage, motherhood, and/or ministry… then I recommend this bundle to you.

I write this as a Gabby Mom, for Eternal Encouragement magazine, having received this Colorado Power Pack for an honest review. I also write this because I was blessed by the teaching this bundle holds.

You have an opportunity to receive your own free bundle. Just follow this link, Encouragement: Colorado Power Pack, and fill out the form.

 

 

 

Worth the Money and Time

 

I was truly excited to hear that my next product for review as a Gabby Mom was the Eternal Encouragement magazine. Don’t get me wrong, I love the email subscriptions, but there just is something about being able to have a great read in my hand that allows me to actually turn the page.

 

 

I opened the magazine and began reading at the first page and I didn’t make it through the first article before I began taking notes and heading to my computer to share quotes as facebook status updates and twitter tweets.

Every article was filled with God’s Word and it magnified His grace and love and pointed us to a true and real relationship with our God through His Son Jesus Christ.

There were very few advertisements in the magazine. Those that were in it were truly helpful products focused on growing in Christ. As a fairly new homeschool mom I found the advertisements for curriculum and website referrals very helpful. I think I have just about looked into every one of them and marked them in my favorites on my computer.

As I read through this magazine I was encouraged as a believer, as a woman, as a wife, as a mother, as a teacher. It is a magazine that I will not through in the trash when I am done, but it will be added to my bookshelf as a reference from which to pull information.

In the very last article in the magazine Lorrie Flem the editor of Eternal Encouragement Magazine and More had this to say, My quick description to describe our ministry to others is this, “We encourage women to trust and obey God, stay home, embrace obeying their husbands, consistently and lovingly train their children, and put their first fruits into their own homes.”

If this ministry description is a standard for your own life, then Eternal Encouragement magazine will help you reach and maintain that standard. It’s well worth the money for the subscription and the time to read.

 

Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, 

not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine,

teaching what is good, 

so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands,

to love their children, 

to be sensible, pure, workers at home,

kind, being subject to their own husbands,

 so that the word of God will not be dishonored.

Titus 2:3-5

Eternal Encouragement Magazine & more is an excellent example of this Scripture verse being fleshed out.  Women teaching women to love God, to love their husbands, and to love their children so that the Word of God will not be dishonored or the testimony of Christ maligned. May we all as women work on building each other up and encouraging one another with the Truth of the Word not our own opinions… may we be women, wives, and mothers who walk in a manner worthy of our calling always growing in the grace and knowledge of our God.

(Subscriptions are available printed and digital andany subscription receives the NEW EE Etc. Web Magazine that is published 8 times a year. This has full magazine articles that are only available to Eternal Encouragement Subscribers via a new online magazine website.)

EE Disclaimer: I received this product free from EE magazine for an honest review.

 

 

 

Thankful For The Mess

 

 

How easily we forget that our messes are our treasures.

I have finally finished listening to Lorrie Flem’s mp3 message

                                                                                                        Daily Treasures 

It truly was a blessing.

I sit here now writing this last minute review as a mother overwhelmed. I have been sick for a month, have been run ragged by my own commitments, and by helping my children to keep their commitments, as I play taxi and finder of everything lost. The laundry is behind, the sink is full of dirty dishes, the floors need mopped… again. I have been interrupted at least a dozen times this morning as I try to write this with phone calls from my husband and “Momma, I can’t find it!”… well I could go on, but I won’t.

Because these today are not my list of complaints.

Today these are reminders of my many blessings.

So let me start over.    

I sit here now writing this last minute review as a mother overwhelmed. Even though I have been sick for a month my sickness has not caused me to be unable to meet the needs of my family and ministry. I am thankful that I am run ragged because it means that somehow God has enabled me to not only keep my own commitments but has also enabled me to help my children to keep their commitments. I thank God that I have reliable transportation and gas money so that I can play taxi for my girls. I also am thankful that God has blessed me with my supermom x-ray vision and supersonic brain GPS internal tracking system so that I can be the finder of everything lost. I am thankful that my family has enough clothing to have so much laundry that I actually am able to get behind on it. I am thankful that we have a house full of food and are able to eat and fill the sink full of dirty dishes. I am thankful that the floors need mopped… again, because it means my loved ones, my treasures, have been close to me all week and their physical presence is in our home. I am so grateful to have been interrupted at least a dozen times this morning as I try to write this with phone calls from my husband because it means he thinks of me when he is gone and I am the one he wants to share all his news with first. I am thankful for the interruptions of “Momma, I can’t find it!” in the middle of the morning because it means my children are home with me and I still have the great and awesome privilege of homeschooling them.

I am thankful for the mess. For the mess of motherhood. For the mess of family… because it is a blessing from my God. I am surrounded by treasures. Daily treasures… they call me Wife and they call me Momma. They are my priority before all else only coming behind my God… so I am thankful that this review is last minute because it means that this week I had my priorities in proper place.

I have spent the month making memories and recording my treasures as they were off to see the Wizard of Oz. My girls were in a play that required a lot of practice and they performed ten shows. I spent the month recording them in my mind and on my phone and with my camera. I spent the month texting the adorable things they said and did to my husband when he could not be there because he was at work providing for us. It didn’t matter that the laundry piled up, or the sink, or that there are a few spots in the floors that your sock might stick too… I made memories with my treasures.

I was reminded that I made the right choice as I listened to Daily Treasure by Lorrie Flem, like she said, one day they will not need a taxi, one day the dishes will only be for two, one day it will take longer for the laundry to actually pile up… and I almost cry now thinking about that day. So I think I am going to choose to enjoy today’s treasure now and be oh so very thankful for the mess.

 

 

*Disclaimer: I receive Eternal Encouragement products for free in return for an honest review

 

>Be A Woman

>It’s time for me to share about one of my Eternal Encouragement experiences. I received the January newsletter in my inbox and opened it up to read. In this first newsletter of 2012 I read an encouraging word about being all that I could be.

Be all you can be! If you are a mother, BE a mother! If you are a wife, BE a wife! You are a woman, BE one all the way. Don’t be half a one, wanting to do half a man’s role. BE a lady and be one all the way!  
~ Lorrie Flem

I loved this.

The other day as I was watching tv there was a commercial for the show Dr Quinn Medicine Woman and in the commercial Dr Quinn says something like never hide behind the fact that you are a girl. Have you ever found yourself saying, or thinking, along these lines? Thinking that you will not be taken seriously simply because you are a girl, so why bother? Thinking you could not do or become what God has placed in your heart because you are a girl? Thinking you had to walk and talk like a man to get the job done?

Believe me… your womanness is enough. You don’t have to forsake your femininity to accomplish what God has called you to do. You don’t have to forsake your womanhood to survive in the workplace. Nor do you have to become the b**ch to be taken seriously. Nor do you have to play the seduction card… it’s only degrading you.

There was a day when my motto was that the only thing a man could do that I could not was pee standing up and if I practiced long enough I could probably do that too. I was under the delusions of the lies that were being fed to me by the world. I somehow felt I needed to prove my worth by showing I could measure up to a man.

How backwards that thinking is. It is absolutely crazy to me now… but I guarantee that this thought still continues to thrive in the minds of females all across our nation. Today I realize that there is only one man who can define my worth and who I should be measuring myself by… and His name is Jesus.

It wasn’t until I came to know Him, that I began to truly understand what it meant to be a woman. In Him I learned that I am not less because I am female. I am not weak because I am a girl. Precious one, listen, you don’t have to earn your place in the world by trying to do things like a man… this is not a man’s world… the world belongs to God. It’s His and all that’s in it.

  For the world is Mine, and all it contains.
Psalm 50:12
 
Just be a woman of God.
Keep your head held high and your back straight and your integrity strong.
Just be real.
There is a huge lack of authenticity in our current day.
 
“Behold, I have discovered this,”
says the Preacher,
“adding one thing to another to find an explanation, 
which I am still seeking but have not found.
I have found one man among a thousand,
but I have not found a woman among all these.
Ecclesiastes 7:27-28
 
God created you female and He created you to display His image in your femininity. He created you to bear His likeness as a woman surrendered to His will and bathed in His beauty and grace. Be a woman that God calls a woman worthy of praise.
 
 Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,
But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. 
 Give her the product of her hands,
And let her works praise her in the gates.
Proverbs 31:30-31
 
********************************************************** 
 
The thoughts from this post began from the encouraging word I read in my EE newsletter. If you would like to also receive these words of encouragement just go to http://eternalencouragement.com/ to get your free newsletter.
 
Disclaimer: I post for EE magazine and receive products from EE in return for an honest review.

>Organizing Happiness Review

>
Dwelling on the problem doesn’t take you closer to the solution. If you eat candy all day, you’ll be sick. Likewise, if you put junk into your mind all day, you’ll be sick. If you want to be happier, feed your mind a happier diet. ~ Lorrie Flem

The above quote is just one little bite of the bite-size words of encouragement and tips for you to chew on as you read through Organizing Happiness by Lorrie Flem. This book is one that you can easily read in one sitting but it is filled with counsel that will be beneficial for a lifetime.

I read the title and was a little skeptical thinking how in the world can you “organize” happiness? Then after reading the book I saw the point of the title. So many times as a wife and mother my unhappiness comes from frustrations that are rooted in disorganization.

You know, “What do you mean you mean you can’t find your library book? It’s due back today!”  or “Are we not on our way to basketball practice? Why would you not need your basketball shoes for basketball practice?” and then there’s always the “Ugh, I can’t believe I forgot the… (fill in the blank)”

As a wife and mother the “to do list” is ever growing and never ending… so I will take all the help, and insight, and pointers I can get, and there were some pretty good tid bits in this book.

One of my favorites being “Never give up on your husband and children”

Yes I am guilty of the thought, “I quit! I am packing up and running away because all anyone will miss is the clean laundry”

So I don’t know about you, but I am always in need of encouragement and my eyes and ears are always open to good advice on how to be the best wife and mother that I can be in the grace of God. I also need that advice to be something that I can actually utilize in my life. I need it to be simple and practical because I am indeed a simple and practical kinda girl. 

So if you need some simple, practical, bite-size, and free of charge advice today I would recommend following this link on over to subscribe to the newsletter to get your own e-book download to Organizing Happiness.    

Remember that the book is free is with your free subscription to the newsletter for Eternal Encouragement magazine where Lorrie Flem, the author of Organizing Happiness, is also the Publisher. This is a magazine devoted to give Real Help by Real Moms.

May you be abundantly blessed in Christ!