Doors of Opportunity

For those of you who may not be aware April is autism awareness month.  I have a dear friend Victoria and she blogs at He Holds My right Hand whose daughter has autism.  Her daughter is truly amazing.  Autism touches so many lives.  Another friend of mine, Sara, works with children that have special needs such as autism and she has worked very hard in our community to raise awareness of autism in our community.  One of those efforts was on Friday night there was a movie shown at our church about Temple Grandin.  Ms.Grandin has autism.  Her story is incredible.  Despite her disabilities she has gone on to earn Ph. D. and she has written several books.  She has also made an impact on the Livestock industry.

I did not know about Ms. Grandin before watching this movie.  It touched my heart and I was so glad that Caleb went to watch it with me.  While we were walking home, we talked about the movie.  Then Caleb made reference to a part of the movie that spoke to him.  Temple had a teacher that told her about doors of opportunity in front of her and to walk through them.  Caleb at age seven talked about how God was going to put doors of opportunity in front of him to walk through.  I did not realize that he was going to have that deep of an insight.  Then he made a deeper application when he said that reading is a door of opportunity in front of him.  Now for those of you who don't know reading has been a difficult thing for Caleb.  He had seizures and some other neurological issues until recently and I already know from his dad how that can impact learning.  So Caleb has to work harder when it comes to reading to build new neuropathways in order to learn.  Caleb has been gifted with determination and so has worked very hard.  He is now reading, but it is not his favorite thing to do.  So to hear him make that realization brought a tear to my eye.  He even picked up his George Washington biography on his own once this weekend (usually I have to remind him it is reading time).  I am so glad he came with me to watch the movie.  Caleb does not always have these type of insights, but once in awhile his 7 year old mind blows me away.

I would highly recommend looking at the life of Temple Grandin.  We all have some area we struggle with and it would be tempting to just accept our limitations, but how many doors of opportunity would we miss if we did that.  Let's do what my high school track coach used to tell me, "Accept your limitations and then over come them."  Let's walk through the doors of opportunity in our lives.   

Life's Renovations

Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will."

January 1, 1989 was a day that I will never forget.  That year New Years Day fell on a Sunday and our pastor was out of town visiting his family for the holiday.  I went to church that morning with my boyfriend at the time and my Sunday School teacher was preaching that morning.  It was on this day that one part of my life's journey ended, but another amazing journey began.  For several months I had been seeking to find answers in scripture to many questions that I had about life.  It was through this quest I realized that I had never surrendered my heart to Christ.  That morning during the altar call I went forward and gave my heart to the Lord. 

I have never once had a regret about that decision though my journey with the Lord has had some painful times.  However, the journey has also had many joyful times.  As I ponder the verse above I am reminded of a study I did on Romans 12:2 a few years ago.  One of the words I found for "renewing" was renovation.  Now I have never experienced a home renovation personally, but I remember when my step-mom decided to remodel the kitchen in the home she shares with my dad.  That was a painful for thing for my sisters and I as my dad and step-mother live in the same house we grew up in and that our dad shared with our mother before their divorce.  It was right for her to remodel this kitchen as she needed to make the house her home instead of our mother's home.  However, for my sisters and I this was a difficult thing to see happen.

My life was the same way when Jesus came to reside in my heart.  I kicked out my self from being in charge to now Christ is in charge.  So many things in my heart and life needed to change.  Jesus had to remodel my life.  This has not always been easy as things needed to be torn down in order to be rebuilt, but Jesus as occupant in charge needed to make this home His.  There have been many renovations since. 

I am learning that even though some of the renovations Christ does in my life are painful that I can trust Him to make my life beautiful.  So when life is difficult or painful trust in the Lord, surrender to Him, and allow Him to give you His perfect peace.  The other option is to fight Him in the renovation process that will only hurt you more in your life and you will miss part of the beauty of His plan.  So lean hard on Him today. 

Eternal Encouragement Magazine

I read the spring issue of Eternal Encouragement Magazine. After I finished my first thought was "Maybe I should not have read that all in one sitting." I sat on my couch stunned. Truly I did not know what to do. I felt like someone had just plowed me over, but in a good way. This was not the first time I had this experience. The week before I had almost the same experience from a book that I read ironically in the same areas, then more things have been coming my way that have hit in the same areas as the book and the EE magazine. In a way I think I needed to be overwhelmed in this way. It just appears to be the way I process things. Now I needed to start breaking it down so that I could address the areas that needed to be addressed. I got so busy doing this that I forgot to write my review. Yep, totally missed it. It is now 4 days passed the due date. As a perfectionist, type A driven person that is driving me crazy right now.

Here is what was in the magazine that had this effect on me. One of the early articles talked about the science of housework. Keeping my house clean has never been one of my strong suits. I have friends who think it is relaxing and stress relieving to clean house. Not me, no way! I relax by reading a book or watching a movie, not scrubbing my cabinets or folding laundry. One of the practical suggestions was to accept help from my children. That would be good if they had been trained how to do much of what needs done around the house. When I came home full time June 1, 2011 I had so much training that needed to be done in my children that I did not know where to begin. Then there was another article that talked about training our children in obedience. I read that article and knew that my children are not obedient as they need to be. I have been working on this one from day one of coming home, but my children are 7 and 5 so I am fighting years of time where this training should have been followed through on better. This led to another revelation about my own weaknesses. In my teen years I was a long distance runner-- I used to run 13 miles a day, but I let the self-discipline in my life go. Now I see where my own lack of self-discipline has hindered my abilities to serve my family. I need to work on my inward thought life. I have let too many negative thoughts steal away the joy that Christ wants me to have. That tends to make me grumpy and it can spill over onto my family. Then I faced the CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) I have in my home. It seems every time I get one area under control another one falls apart. I keep thinking that may be if I had grown up in a home where housekeeping was a priority that I might not have this issue. However, reality is that it is my fault for not working harder to develop skills in this area. My husband and I had decided to make hospitality a priority in our home this year so there were many things that were practical and were feel good for me in a couple of articles concerning hospitality along with practical suggestions to make things work even better. We are enjoying the extra people coming through our home. Too many things at once of both conviction and practical ideas so I put the magazine away and started to process it all. Thus forgetting to write my review.

There was one article that proved particularly helpful in the Spring issue of Eternal Encouragement Magazine to get me started. Lorrie Flem wrote an article called Chaos, CFA, CDSA (Can't Have Anyone Over, Can't Find Anything, Can Do Something About It). In the article she talked about some practical things she does when she feels overwhelmed. This helped me significantly. Lorrie will take the larger tasks and break them down into individual tasks then assign tasks until the work is done. Each task is written on a post-it note and distributed. Then as each task is accomplished things become less overwhelming and less chaotic. I decided to utilize this idea. I did not have post-it notes, but I mentally went through four rooms in our home that needed to be addressed and made a list of all the small tasks needed to be done. Then I assigned them one at a time. I worked with Caleb and Simeon and was able to begin the training process of how to do specific tasks and explain my expectations in the process. That day the house work became less overwhelming because my helpers have learned some of how to help. This gave me the boost I needed to take obedience training to the next level. Since my first son was born I have believed that as he grew up he needed to learn to obey me the first time I told him to do something. The problem is the training for he and his brother was not consistent enough to make this happen on a regular on-going basis. I have been addressing this and some other character issues I see developing in my little boys. The first two weeks were grueling and I wondered if I was wasting my time, but I continued to address these issues. Then I started to see progress. Things have improved greatly in our home the Lord used Eternal Encouragement Magazine. That is just a little snippet of the journey.

I know that Eternal Encouragement Magazine can encourage you right where you are as well. If you want to subscribe to find encouragement in your journey as a wife and mom then click here. The magazine is now available in both digital and print copy. Also along with your subscription you receive the new EE ECT. This is has full magazine articles that are available to Eternal Encouragement subscribers via a new online magazine website. If you are new to Eternal Encouragement the check out the website here.

Note: I received Eternal Encouragement Magazine as an official member of the Gabby Moms blogging program in exchange for my honest review.