May 19, 2013

Thankfulness: Randomness

thankful thursdayIt’s Thankful Thursday again and the “theme” is Random.  So here are a few random things I am thankful this Thursday.

  • My middle sister found a job after 3 1/2 months of unemployment and was accepted to college!
  • New locks on the Doors.
  • Fresh Spring Air.
  • My Little Girls Lost Tooth.
  • My Hubby’s Job.
  • My Little Sister’s Due Tomorrow.
  • My Twitter Friends (you guys are awesome!!)

Father God,

My most precious Father in Heaven, Thank You.  You provide such a sweet peace in my life, and for that I am most grateful.  You are such an awesome God and an all knowing Savior…Thank You for my blessed, blessed life. I am unworthy and yet You still bless.  Thank You Jesus for my Salvation and for shedding Your precious Blood so that I might be clean…Thank You for my family; my beautiful children, wonderful husband, and extended family. Please put a hedge of protection around my family and friends. Protect my marriage and Hubby’s job.

In Jesus Name I pray,

A.

MomFaves Monday~TheDesperate.com

In honor of MomFaves inaugural MomFaves Monday, I am going to introduce you to TheDesperate.com, another brand new online social media site.

Recently I was contacted and asked to check out a brand new social network called The Desperate.  The Desperate is an awesome place for Christians to come together and share support, ideas, and the passion for Christ.

When founder was on Myspace recently, he found himself wondering why there wasn’t a social website catering specifically for Christians.  Feeling a call from God, he decided to start TheDesperate.com, as a meeting place for people of like faith to come together and share their experiences, testimonies, and to offer support to fellow believers in an atmosphere conducive to worship.  You can set up a profile, befriend fellow members, and live chat with fellow believers.  The Desperate even offers a Salvation video, to lead others to Christ,as well as a link to share your own personal testimony.

The founders are super nice and helpful. They generously answered all of my questions with patience and thoroughness.  I urge you to check out The Depserate and cultivate some new friendships with like believers.

End World Hunger

The Hunger Site

My five year old daughter and I pray about hunger daily. She feels children starving is more important than anything else for her to pray about. If a five year old can find hunger important enough to talk to God about shouldn’t we? Hunger claims the lives of 25,000 people each day and 18,000 hungry children die each day. How many more have to forfeit their lives before we as a community come together to say enough is enough?! As an obese nation,  each person  consumes somewhere around 1500 pounds of food a year.

Courtesy of BBC

Courtesy of BBC

Hunger is defined in Oxford English Dictionary as “the uneasy or painful sensation caused by want of food; craving appetite. Also the exhausted condition caused by want of food.”   While most of us wasted nearly $100 billion of food last year alone, over 800 million people were undernourished–that’s more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union. One in seven people on the planet suffer from hunger and more than 60 percent of chronically hungry people are women, which should strike most of us women as deeply disturbing…60% of 800 million people is more than 500 million women.

Courtosey of BBC

Courtosey of BBC

As a mother, I find this statistic the most heartbreaking: every five seconds a child dies because she or he is hungry.  In the time it has take you to read just this far, nine children have died due to hunger. 9.7 million children under five died in developing countries in 2006 alone, think of how many more have died by now. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases caused 60 percent of the deaths; they contribute to deaths caused by diahreha, malaria, measles, and pneumonia.

How many more people have to die before we as humans, God’s Children, stand up and say ENOUGH? If we all helped out just a little, we could easily end world hunger. It takes standing up for those who can’t stand up for themselves and it might even mean a little sacrifice from us, but isn’t it worth it. Help stop the hunger and death!

logo-thsSites like The Hunger Site make it easy, you can donate food for free with just a click of your mouse.  I set an Outlook reminder for everyday to help remind me to visit. One click donates the equivalent of 1.1 cups of food, done daily you can contribute over 365 cups of food for FREE every year. If you want to do more, you can shop for beautiful gifts at The Hunger Site Shop.  The more you shop, the more food is donated. For the last two years, we have bought many of our family’s gifts from here and Hubby buys all of my gifts from there.  Many of the items in the shop are handmade, Fair Trade items; you can buy kits that directly help others. In 2008, The Hunger Site, thanks to their generous advertisers, donated over 8,000,000 pounds of food to Feeding America, Mercy Corps, Save Darfur Coalition, and The ONE Campaign.

Courtesy of FreeRice.com

FreeRice.com donates 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program for every word you correctly define.  With every word you get right the words get harder, and when you get one wrong the words get easier.  This is a great way to donate food for free and exercise your brain. There are so many different ways you can donate right from the comfort of your home, why are we not doing more?

Visit these sites for more details on how YOU can help:

http://www.wfp.org

http://fromhungertohope.com

http://www.thehungersite.com

http://www.bread.org

http://wwwfreerice.com

http://www.worldhunger.org

We are all God’s people! and we must do our part to save those who cannot save themselves!

All statistics can be found at: http://fromhungertohope.com/hungerfacts
Photos Courtesy of BBC
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Just a Thought…”If Clothes Could Talk”

Recently I was reading my P31 Woman magazine (for which I pay $12 a year) and was particularly interested in an article by Shari Braedel about how we, as Christian women, should be dressing to represent the Lord, that its OK to “look good, feel good, and spend time on ourselves.” This is something I’ve been struggling with for sometime now. I’m preparing to turn 26 in three days and I’m having a bit of an identity crisis. I’m the mother of two amazing, strong willed, little girls and I am the wife of a fantastic Christian man…but I have no idea who I am right now. Now don’t get me wrong, I KNOW that I am a chosen woman of God and I KNOW that Jesus is my Savior, but outside of that…I don’t know. I am so tired of wearing T-shirts and blue jeans everyday…but I am not familiar with how to dress any other way. I’m not comfortable in anything else, though I would like to be. I hate low cut shirts and short skirts/shorts and I have been struggling with how to dress age appropriately. It was nice to have some one affirm to me that it is OK for me to dress nicely, not that I need to spend a lot of money to do so…I usually only buy clothes for myself on my birthday and Christmas, when I get gift certificates and even then I use coupons…but that it’s good for me to look nice and look like I’m happy. I’m representing Christ and Christians everywhere. I don’t want people to look at me and see a person who doesn’t care what she looks like, or someone who is unhappy. I want people to look at me and see the love of Christ in me. This article came at just the right time for me…with my birthday coming up, God’s gentle voice helped to guide me to a place where I can be content. If you would like to learn more about this magazine click here. To view the Proverbs31 website click here. Amanda

November 28, 2007

“Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.”

1 Chronicles 16:8

November 19, 2007

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Psalm 1:1-2

November 15, 2007

Trouble and distress have come upon me, but your commands are my delight.”

Psalm 119:143

‘Tis the Season

To give! As we’re all focusing on what to get our loved ones for Christmas, families all over the world are focusing on how they will eat tomorrow or how they will get clean water for their family. You know, as a mom, my children are my first priority. I am also struck by the need to help another mother provide for her families basic needs. Worldvison.com is a wonderful website that allows YOU as a family or individual provide much needed help for a family or child in need. You can provide an alpaca or a share of an alapaca for an Peruvian or Ecuadorian family or you could help to build a well for many impoverished communities. What a great gift to give! When you purchase a gift through The Hunger Site store, every item you purchase sends at least 25 cups of food to the hungry! This site offers beautiful jewelry, clothing, pottery, and many other gifts.

Do you know someone how has everything? Like your father in law? or that aunt who seems to have too much of everything? Why not provide $325 worth of necessities to an impoverished child in New York City in their name? I hope that this year we are able to touch someone’s life in a positive manner rather than only padding the pockets of credit card companies.

While you’re at it take a few minutes and scan these websites for other great gifts that go along way to helping others.

Worldvision.com

The Hunger Site –With this site, Starting on November 12, 2007, and for a limited time, every completed Hunger Site order will provide eight meals through America’s Second Harvest — at no additional cost to you!

Edited to add: For a limited time only The Hunger Site will feed a family of four with every order placed in The Hunger Site store through the work of America’s Second Harvest-The Nation’s Food Bank Network. Offer Good until Monday, November 19, 2007.

SaveDarfur.org

The Hunger Site Just one click here and you can donate 1 cup of food.

Adult Missions Group

God has recently been speaking to my heart about missions. I have always felt a strong draw to missions, but recently God has been pushing me to take a more active role in my community. The first step God pressed on my heart was to start our Adult Missions Group back up in church. We had a interested parties meeting yesterday right after church…I had about 8 people interested! I thought that was GREAT! I have asked that they go home and spend the next week or so praying about their role in the group and what God is telling them this group should be focusing on. My top priority is glorifying God in all we do and I want us to work together as a single unit.

I’ll be honest, I’m scared to death. When I asked the last leader of the group for any suggestions all she said was “Its hard.” So thats a little nerve shaking. I want to make my God smile…I want to make His name glorified! I want to expand His kingdom beyond all human imagination! Glory to the God on Highest! There are a lot of wonderful Christ-filled people interesting in being a part of the group.

Please be in prayer with me as I pray for direction. I know God has called me to this and I only have to trust Him and He will lead us. Any positive ideas for how our group can impact our community would be great! I was thinking about visiting the elderly in the nursing homes and volunteering at homeless shelters…My God is driving and pulling me to impact our community positively! Our time is short! We should feel a pull for not only our personal lost but those we don’t know…because God tells us we are ALL His children. Join with me in impacting our community! everyday.

Father God,

Thank you for the opportunity to serve Your people and Your name! Father, truly You are the Most High God! I praise Your might and grace! Lord, please be with me in the time to come as I strive to bring new glory to Your name! Direct me O’ God in the paths you want this group to take! Show me the path to follow…Be clear with me God! I am an ignorant and sinful creature. Forgive my shortcomings and us me for Your Will! Thank You again Father for this wonderful opportunity!

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen

October 29, 2007

“Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. “

1 Thessalonians 5:6