Up Date - I am Alive

Hello- wow - it's been a long time. Today is the first day I have turned my computer on in a few days. That is so unusual for me. It was a long week- After Dr visits, xrays, calls to the Dr- I am finally doing better. I am not 100% yet - but let me tell you - I am SO much better than I was. Xrays show my back to be in pretty good shape - well no arthritis and no bulging discs. Basically it looks like it ended up being muscles spasms in my back. But these spasms are causing some numbing, tingling, crawling feeling down my right leg. I can not sleep in any position except on my left side with a pillow between my knees. It is hard -SO very hard to sleep in one position all night long. My left hip and shoulder bone really is sore - wakes me up ever hour or so. Don't know for sure what caused it but I also experienced a horrible headache - like a headache from hell. Sorry about that - but that is the best way I can explain it. I ended up throwing up about 8 - 10 times. I can not even remember the last time that I threw up before that. Usually I have a great immune system - but the last few months my system has been so run down - there has been SO much stress - I really should not be surprised at all. But what is sad/funny (what ever it is) is that I am feeling so much more peace about things - so I am surprised that now I am having so many problems. I am hoping that this is the end of this bad spell and that I can get to feeling better and stay well.

Also I would like to ask for prayers for tomorrow morning. We are to meet at the Lawyers office first and then go to the court house. Please pray for our family. There has been false allegations - all of which have been cleared but this family is trying to use these false allegations to get what they want and that is - that we don't get to have hardly any time or no time at all with the granddaughter. It has been forever since we have seen her. It has been so hard on all of us. God is still in control.

Thanks so much for the prayers. I will try to get on here tomorrow afternoon and update you all on what is going on. I really appreciate all the prayers and encouragement from you all. They have really helped me a lot.

See ya then ~ Lisa :O)

What Seventh Day Adventists Believe.....#23

Fundamental Belief.....#23

 Marriage and the Family:
Marriage was divinely established in Eden and affirmed by Jesus to be a lifelong union between a man and a woman in loving companionship. For the Christian a marriage commitment is to God as well as to the spouse, and should be entered into only between partners who share a common faith. Mutual love, honor, respect, and responsibility are the fabric of this relationship, which is to reflect the love, sanctity, closeness, and permanence of the relationship between Christ and His church. Regarding divorce, Jesus taught that the person who divorces a spouse, except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery. Although some family relationships may fall short of the ideal, marriage partners who fully commit themselves to each other in Christ may achieve loving unity through the guidance of the Spirit and the nurture of the church. God blesses the family and intends that its members shall assist each other toward complete maturity. Parents are to bring up their children to love and obey the Lord. By their example and their words they are to teach them that Christ is a loving disciplinarian, ever tender and caring, who wants them to become members of His body, the family of God. Increasing family closeness is one of the earmarks of the final gospel message.

 

     And the Lord God said, "It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him." 19 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. 21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. 22 Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. 23 And Adam said: "This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." 24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:18-25

 

The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?" 4 And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' 5 and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." 7 They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" 8 He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."   

Matthew 19:3-9

 

    On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Now both Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding. 3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine." 4 Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come." 5 His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." 6 Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews, containing twenty or thirty gallons apiece. 7 Jesus said to them, "Fill the waterpots with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And He said to them, "Draw some out now, and take it to the master of the feast." And they took it. 9 When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. 10 And he said to him, "Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!" 11 This beginning of signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in Him

John 2:1-11

 

    Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?   

2 Corinthians 6:14

 

submitting to one another in the fear of God. 22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.   

Ephesians 5:21-33

   

 "Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' 32 But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.  

Matt. 5:31, 32

 

    So He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12 And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."   

Mark 10:11, 12

 

    Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced from her husband commits adultery.

Luke 16:18

 

 

    Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. 11 But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife.   

1 Corinthians 7:10, 11

 

    "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.   

Exodus 20:12

 

    Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 "Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise: 3 "that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth." 4 And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.   

Ephesians 6:1-4

 

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."  

Deuteronomy 6:5-9

 

    Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.   

Proverbs 22:6

 

    Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 6 And he will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.   

Malachi 4:5, 6
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Don't forget that our next series will be a "Bible Marking" series.

Home Made Cleaners

Last week I shared about how I had made up some home made laundry detergent and dish washing powder and that I would share how I made them.

So that is what we will be doing today.

I printed out my recipes for these soaps several years ago and I really don't remember where exactly I got them. It seems I found one recipe one place and later found the other one. Anyway what I am trying to say is that I was not the brilliant person to come up with these recipes - I am only sharing what I have learned through others. And I am so thankful that they shared their wisdom.

 

Powder Laundry Detergent

 

1 bar of soap (Fels Natha, Castile Soap, or Ivory Soap. I have been using the Ivory soap)

1 Cup Washing Soda - not to confuse with Baking Soda

1 Cup Borax

 

Grate the entire bare of soap. I put this into my blender and then add the other two ingredients to the blender and blend it up. I don't think you have to use the blender - I think it will work just as well if you don't. But if you don't - you will want to stir the mixture for a while in order to combine the ingredients.

I like to make one batch at a time- and then just make another batch after that and so on if I want to make more than one batch at a time - but it probably does not matter. You just want your stuff to be combined well.

I store mine detergent in a Tupperware canister. It stores well. Oh I almost forgot to add you use a heaping tablespoon of detergent to each load - you can add 2 tablespoons to extra dirty clothes.

This stuff works great and is very economical. Each box of Washing Soda and Borax cost about $3.00, But they make quite a few batches - since you only use 1 cup per batch. I will get prices and then measure out how many cups of each product they have and then I will be able to tell you how much each batch actually cost. But I can tell you this it is cheaper than even the cheap detergent. I use Ivory Soap and I bought a 10 pack of them and had a coupon so I got a really good deal. And that was like a couple of years ago- I made up a few batches at the first. Have shared some bars with my son, we have used a few bars for showers and then I have made up these last few batches and have at least a couple more left.

 

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Dish washing Powder

1 Cup Borax

 

1 Cup Baking Soda

 

Mix these two together and put into a container. You can use about 2-3 Tablespoons for each load.

 

Where ever I got these directions also said to fill the rinse aid receptacle with vinegar once every week or two.

 

Some of the other Dish washing powders talk about using Sea Salt and/or citric acid, one of the places said they used an unsweetened lemon aid koolaid package- but I just don't know how important those things are. Research on the Internet then decide how you want to make your dish washing powder.

 

Anyway that is what I use. And I have been happy with them. I do use a regular dish washing liquid ever so often. Cause I already had a container of it when I made my home made stuff. Don't know if I will continue to buy the stuff or not. I have not been using my dishwasher hardly at all. And most of the time when I do use it I am only using it to dry the dishes that I have washed by hand. 

 

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I would be interested to know if any of you use home made cleaning products and how you make them. I am looking into doing more of my cleaners - by hand. Much cleaner and safer. Let me know.

 

Just Not Gonna Go There

 

 

 

A friend "shared" this on Facebook. And when I read it - it reminded me of a blog post that a fellow blogger had posted about- a conversation - that was obviously satan trying to discourage this lady. And he was saying all sorts of negative things to her. Her response - was to look to God's Word - for the truth.

I have a problem with those negative thoughts in my head and lately I have gotten into a habit of saying these bad thoughts out loud. During some quiet time this morning - I realized that this was something that I needed to stop. Bad thoughts will come into our minds and we may not be able to stop them from coming -

 

    "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."

1 Peter 5:8

 

BUT we can choose not to Go There. So I have decided the next time that those negative thoughts come to my mind instead of allowing my mind to dwell on it or say it out loud- I will say to myself - or who is bringing those negative things to my mind - "I'm just not gonna go there."

 

And instead I will claim verses like these:

 

    "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female

He created them."   

Genesis 1:27

 

    "But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand."

Isaiah 64:8

 

    "I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well."   

Psalms 139:14

 

"I'm Just Not Gonna Go There"

 

And this also is a good way to deal with the family or friends who knowingly or unknowingly try to get us down with what they have to say. I have a family member who bless her heart thinks she is helping but sometimes she tells me things or go do the worse case scenario about some of the difficult things going on in our lives right now - and it is things that do nothing but cause fear and anxiousness in my heart - and that kind of fear is not of God.  

 

 

   For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7

So I will have to keep this phrase, "I'm Just Not Gonna Go There" in mind for these conversations as well. I may not use those exact words every time - but I will be bringing the focus back to God being in charge of what is going on and if they continue with their unhealthy (at least unhealthy way for me to look at this situation) then I might have to use that exact phrase. 

In any case - it is really a good idea to have a game plan in place just in case you are faces with a situation like the two above that I have shared today. We have the right to decide just not to go into conversations or thoughts that are not healthy for us. This is just part of making boundaries and boundaries are healthy for us- especially when they line up with God's Word.

 

Taking Things For Granted

This is actually the second post of the day - so if you missed the first one - be sure and check it out.

This past week-end my husband and I got sucked into watching- "Buying Alaska." This show is about people looking for property in Alaska - and a realtor showing this 3 properties and then them deciding which property to get. We really enjoyed the showings of the 3 properties and then trying to guess which one the people would go with. Sometimes we were right, sometimes not.
And oh my goodness~ The views were awesome! I would love to have a view like them.

But there are also draw backs as well. And to those looking for property in Alaska those draw backs are not as big of negatives as they would be for my husband and I. At one property they were telling the potential buyers that the house was heated with propane. They went on to say that since propane was running $3.50 area per gallon that the propane bill would run about $1,000 a month! Oh my! There have been some months especially in the summer and especially before we got new windows put in, that we would have pretty big electric bills, but NO where near $1,000 a month.

After that I began to think that there are so many things that we take for granted in life and we don't really even realize we are taking them for granted. As many of you know- that I was dealing with an upper respiratory infection/sinus infection for like 2+ months. And I was thinking that health was something that I was really taking for granted. I have had a really good immune system most of my life with getting sick here and there but nothing like this past couple of months. Oh and if fighting that infection was not enough - the last week I have been dealing with sciatica pain and discomfort. It has been so bad that there were a few nights that I did not get very much sleep at all. I talked to my Dr and she told me to sleep on my side with a pillow between my knees or on my back with a pillow under my knees. Well today - my discomfort went into the pain - and the part that you have to be very careful at how you move. I am SO hoping that I am closer to the end of this discomfort and pain.

So back to what this post is about and that is we all really need to be thankful for all the blessings in our lives and even the blessings that we don't realize that we have like - like when we are experiencing health a majority of the time - that is a blessing, and many of us - although our bills seem high - there are probably a lot of people that are paying more for the same thing. We can find SO many things to be thankful for if we will only look.

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I had not planned on doing a second post today but since my sciatica nerve is giving me so much trouble today - I am not being able to get the list of things that I wanted to get done today- so I thought I would share my thoughts on being thankful and taking things for granted.

Hope you all are doing well. :o)

Dysfunctional Merry-Go-Round

There is a lesson that I have learned in the last year or so, but sometimes I tend to forget it. But once the ugly head of dysfunction raises its head - and I begin to react to it... I come to remember it again.

I believe we all deal with a little dysfunction in our families. Because sin entered the world - we now have dysfunction. And it can cause some bad effects such as your peace being stolen. That is what happened to me recently.

I was speaking to a family member about a difficult situation that our family has been going through and this person started telling me all sorts of not to positive information - kind of like worse case scenario's-   and as she was talking - my peace slowly was draining out of me. Some people might think that I have my head in the sand but that is not the way I look at it. I just want to keep my eyes on Jesus and trust Him. And this conversation was not at all helping me do that. I am sure this person thought that they were helping prepare me - just in case..... I got off the phone as soon as I could.

I had no peace. I was so thankful that my husband was home and I was able to tell him about the conversation and how upsetting it had been for me. It took a little time for me to work through these negative feelings and come to a place of peace again. While we were talking I realized the lesson I had learned - in all of our families there are dysfunctional merry-go-rounds and we can either stay on them and ride OR we can choose to get off of them and step away. Staying on and riding is not fun. It steals my peace. So I choose to get off.

I have realized that I need to learn how, while in these conversations that try to pull me back onto the merry-go-round, to let it be known that I do not want to get back on the merry-go-round. I need to have the courage to stay off. And believe me - when being pulled back on- it takes courage.

There are some situations - even in our families- that we need to step away from in order to have peace and sanity. So I am choosing to stay off. And if I find myself on the merry-go-round - I will get off as soon as possible. I hope you will too. :O)

Safely Committed to Him

"The time of testing that marks and mightily enriches a soul's spiritual career is no ordinary one, but a period when all hell seems let loose, a period when we realize our souls are brought into a net, when we know that God is permitting us to be in the devil's hand. But it is a period which always ends in certain triumph for those who have committed the keeping of their souls to Him, a period of marvelous "nevertheless afterward" of abundant usefulness, the sixty-fold that surely follows."
--Aphra White

After reading the previous quote - I was reminded of these verses in 2 Timothy:

   "For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed,

for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

13 Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me,

 in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 That good thing which was committed to you,

 keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us."

2 Timothy 1:12-14