Are you blessed?

Matthew 5:3-12 (The Message)

3 "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.

4 "You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

5 "You're blessed when you're content with just who you are—no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.

6 "You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

7 "You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'care-full,' you find yourselves cared for.

8 "You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

9 "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family.

10 "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom.

11-12 "Not only that—count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens—give a cheer, even!—for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble.


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I love this passage...what a great point of reflection/reminder....

Kiss Me Again by Barbara Wilson

Kiss Me Again - Restoring Lost Intimacy in Marriage

Written by: Barbara Wilson

Summary:


Many married women genuinely want to feel more desire toward their husbands. But while sex before marriage was hard to resist, now resisting seems like all they do. In her new book, Barbara Wilson shows how couples can suffer for years from the “invisible bonds” of previous relationships without even knowing it. Hidden emotions of distrust, shame, and resentment can sabotage even the most loving marriage.

In Kiss Me Again, Wilson :
· Shares her own story of healing and renewed desire
· Helps women forgive themselves and their husbands for past choices
· Shows readers how to break free from “invisible bonds”
· Explains God’s plan for helping a husband and wife to re-bond
· Includes conversation helps for both wives and their husbands
· Helps couples reignite the passion that they thought was lost
With assessment tools, write-in exercises, and gentle guidance, Kiss Me Again offers a biblical plan for rekindling the closeness and passion women long for in marriage. Because no past is beyond the reach of God’s healing touch.

Author Bio:
Barbara Wilson is the author of The Invisible Bond and former director of sexual health education for the Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center in Sacramento . She speaks nationwide to youth and adults with her message of sexual healing, and she teaches frequently in the women’s ministry at the multi-campus Bayside Church in Northern California . Barbara and her husband, Eric, have been married for twenty-eight years.

To purchase this book, please click on the cover of the book at the top of this post.

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.
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This book was a good read and I could see where both solid marriages and struggling marriages could benefit form reading this book.  The way the book is set up allows for you to navigate through a 'study' if you will on on your own.  The book has a 10 week study included within the very pages of the book.  I could see where you could easily skip over places that might not apply to you or your relationship and still learn and grow from other parts of the book.

Our son is creative!

Seth is really an amazing little boy. 

When he decides to be an acrobat and stand on the arm of the couch, he gives us a good scare. 

When he trys to be the next action movie star and jumps from chair to chair in grandmas dinning room, he gives grandma a good scare! 

When he needs attention he will stand up and fall back on his bottom and say 'uh oh' waiting for us to all ask 'oh Seth are you ok?'

When I looked at his plate tonight when he was done eating, I realized he is VERY creative!  See he had strategically taken bites out of his roll to make a face...and yes I took a picture just to prove it to you!  So should we perform a psychoanalysis on the boy based on how he ate his roll tonight?  I wonder if it is a screaming face of a face with its mouth open in surprise...or maybe it was just how he chose to eat his roll tonight...oh the joys of parenthood!  Children never cease to surprise you!

Extraordinary

Extraordinary
Written by: John Bevere

Summary:
Isn’t it true that we long to see the extraordinary, experience the extraordinary, do the extraordinary? Yet, so often we settle for mediocrity when greatness is within our grasp.
Why are we drawn to stories of heroic triumph over seemingly impossible circumstances? In our fascination with adventure movies, superheroes, and tales of incredible human feats, do we reveal an inherent desire for something larger and greater in life? Maybe what we think is a need to escape or be entertained is actually a God inspired longing…for the extraordinary.
Best-selling author John Bevere reveals how all of us were “meant for more,” extraordinarily created and intended for a life that is anything but ordinary. Here is the roadmap for your journey of transformation. You are marked for a life that far surpasses the usual definitions of success or fulfillment.
Isn’t it time to pursue your extraordinary life?

To purchase a copy of this book please click on the book above!

This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

Pay It Forward

My husband and I just finished watching the movie, "Pay It Forward." Talk about a breath taking, heart sinking, tears-welling-up in your eyes kind of movie. I think this is definitely a movie we will consider purchasing to add to our collection.

Children sometimes have a way of making things so clear for us. Sometimes we learn more from children than we teach them. In this movie, the teacher puts an assignment on the board for his students, not knowing that it would end up changing his life.

The idea that young Trevor has is something called 'Pay if Forward'...when you help somebody out who really needs it, instead of that person paying you back, you tell them to pay it forward...and to help three more people...those people are to help three more people...young Trevor thought that such a plan would make the world a better place.

One thing that I liked about the movie was how realistic it is. It isn't one of those fairy tale type movies about a boy who has a plan and changes the world and lives happily ever after. Struggles within the movie include alcohol abuse, promiscuity, emotional scars, physical scars, single parent issues, drug abuse, bullying at school. It is definitely how the world is today. The ending was not what we were expecting at all.

The 3 rules for pay it forward?
1. It has to be something that really helps people.
2. It has to be something they can't do for themselves.
3. If you do it for them, they have to do it for three other people.

Wouldn't our world be a better place if instead of paying people back for the favors they do for us we payed it forward to three more unsuspecting people who passed it on to three more people?