First Things First

I am filled with joy to tell you that an exciting part of this year has arrived! Tomorrow my family will embark on our first train ride to Chicago to see Grampie and Grammie. After 4 days, Daddy and Mommy (that's me) will return home without the wee ones in order to prepare and go on a week-long mission trip in South Dakota. We will be ministering to the Lakota/Dakota people. I am so very excited! I wanted to share a few things with you before I left:

I will be missing my children with agony. So why am I willing to leave them? Day by day I am attempting to teach my children that their relationship with God is the thing of utmost importance in our lives. I daily try to teach them to put others before themselves in an effort to share God's love with others. I daily try to teach them that our mission on this earth is to share the Word of God with those who do not know him. The best way that I can teach them this principle is to do it. If they see me setting it all aside to take the Word of God to a people who do not know, then they will see that I mean what I say. When they are old enough, you better believe they will not be left behind, they will be right there by my side!

There are those who do not know. The compelling force that drives me is the knowledge that there are those out there that do not understand that the eternity laid out before them is hell. Nope, I am not sugar-coating it for you today, ladies! Whether it is spending time with a friend, working alongside my husband in youth ministry, spending a week on a reservation, or raising my children to one day go, I do it all for the sole purpose of reaching as many as I possibly can during my life spent here on this earth. This is not my home. I am only here that I may draw others to Christ.

First Things First. I get busy. Real busy, doing the everyday ordinary tasks. It is times like these next couple of weeks that bring everything into very clear focus for me. There are some really important things in life and the real, honest truth is, the things I spend most of my time on are not those things. I love reminders that strip me of the useless and fill me with the knowledge of God's purpose for his people.

So while I am gone I challenge you with the following:
Pray for me!
Teach your children to serve, not only by instruction, but by demonstration.
Tell others about your faith - anyone!
Remember what is most important in your life.

With this I leave you for a while! I will keep you updated as much as I possible can! Blessings!

Keep Your Virtue

There continues to be more to glean from Rudyard Kipling's poem If and we will focus on it a couple more days! The portion I would like to look at today screams loudly of one word - Integrity.

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much.

Integrity is one of my favorite words.  According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary integrity means:

1: firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values : incorruptibility

2: an unimpaired condition : soundness

3: the quality or state of being complete or undivided : completeness

I was always taught that "integrity is who you are when no one is looking." I love the synonyms used: incorruptibility, soundness, completeness. The Bible says

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,
But whoever takes crooked paths will be found out. Proverbs 10:9

It is a very easy thing to lose one's integrity. As women, we balance so many things on our shoulders, that there are many places that we could lose that incorruptibility. If you are a stay at home wife, then there is even more danger! Who is there during the day to keep you accountable? Remember, who you are at home, is who you should be when you meet for coffee with the mayor's wife and the same you should be when you get together for a girls' night out and the same you should be on Sunday morning at church. Who you are should not change with your surroundings. We are beautifully created women, not chameleons! As Kipling points out, we are to always keep our virtue no matter what crowd we are in; we should never lose the common touch, or our humility, no matter what important people we are with; all people should be equal in our eyes.

Ways to protect your integrity:
1) Find an accountability partner - someone you can call and let it all out with. Make sure she is someone who will also be brutally honest with you when you need it!
2) Monitor what you watch, read, and listen to. You may be an adult, but step back and see if you would allow your children or teens to have the same input that you are having into your own heart. If the answer is no, then ask yourself why? and then should I? The way we view the world is powerfully influenced by these things. Find instead a book that will teach you how to be a better wife or mother. Find a radio station that will play music with a positive message (it is there for all music genres, believe me!). Limit your TV time.
3) Make a To-Do list for the week.
4) Don't be alone with men. There is so much on the line, especially when our husbands are away each day. Remember it is your heart you are guarding, not just your body.
5) If you have kids, remember that what you are demonstrating will be qualities (or lack of) that will most likely reveal themselves in your child's life. Try to live and display the fruit you want to see grow in your child.
6) If you feel that you are not always the same person, sit down and decide who you truly are. Then, go to your closet, jewelry box, or bathroom and discard all the things that belong to "that other woman." Make a conscious effort to be the real you all the time.

My dear sister, I hope that you have an amazing day in Christ, being just who He created you to be!