ABC's of a Godly Home Day U

Day U - Under and Unity

Spiritual Challenge Day U - Under. Your spiritual challenge today is to make sure you are under God's influence not the world's. I know I have talked about this before, but I guess I'm bringing it up again because it is something that I need reminded of alot. God is our example and influence, not the world. We are to make sure our lives and our homes are pleasing to God and not worry about what the world thinks. For today, pray and make sure that you are under God's influence in your home and family.

Physical Challenge Day U - Unity. Your physical challenge today is to make sure your family is in unity regarding your daily schedule. Is everyone following it? Do your children have their own schedule or do they need one? Is everyone on board with your goals for your home and your homeschool or do you need to reevaluate them and discuss them? Your challenge is to make sure there is unity in the home and if not, see what can be done to remedy that. Get your family's input on how things are going and if any changes need to be made.

Blessings,
Rashel

Pictures of my family's tornado damage

The picture below is of my Grandmother's home (my Dad's mom). Can you see the brown door in the middle wall, that is the closet she was hiding in! It's so sad, several of her neighbors lost their lives in the storm. Praise God she made it out alive. We've been working to salvage stuff the last several days and have been able to recover some things.

This next picture is of my Mom's home, her and her husband were not home at the time. We've also been working here the last several days salvaging what we can. We were able to save alot of her kitchen items and alot of pictures and a few pieces of furniture that were family pieces.

I've been totally overwhelmed by the number of people helping all over the city. Every day that we are there working someone stops to ask if we are okay and if we need any food or water (usually several times a day). Today someone offered gloves, safety glasses and hard hats. It's just overwhelming to see all the volunteers everywhere. There have been several times that I have swelled up with tears just thinking of the outpouring of love and generosity. The devastation is overwhelming as well, but to see how others are so caring helps so much. I've been there everyday but one and I'm still amazed when I just stop and take a minute to look around at how terrible everything looks. The destruction is so widespread, it us unreal. However, today in just the small part of the city that we were in, there were two houses we saw that had spray painted the words "God saved us" on the side of the house.

Blessings to each of you,
Rashel

ABC's of a Godly Home - Day T

Day T - Thirsty and Temple

Spiritual Challenge Day T - Thirsty. Are you thirsty for God? He says that if we will drink from His well, we will never thirst again. We are to be thirsty for God, craving His word as if we would starve without it. Your spiritual challenge today is to drink in God's word and quench your thirst. Take time to really enjoy it, to bask in it and be refreshed. Don't rush this, just enjoy your time in His word. (Whatever time of the day you can work it in, you know what works best for you)

Physical Challenge Day T - Temple. Today I want you to think about your home being a temple for God. Would it be pleasing to Him? Wait wait, don't freak out as you look around at the dirty clothes on the floor or the school books on the table. I'm talking about the atmosphere of your home and the influences you allow to enter it. Your challenge today is to take a good look at your home and see if there are things that are inhibiting your relationship with God. Are you allowing evil in your home through certain books or other forms of media? How about the attitudes in your home? Are they pleasing to God? I know we all have bad times but I'm talking about the norm in your home. Stop and look around your home, are your books one that would lead you to God or away? What about the movies you watch? Do you need to spend some time correcting bad attitudes instead or worrying about finishing math today? Ask God to guide you as you work toward making your home a temple for God.

Local Tornado Damage

I'm sure most of you have seen the tornado damage of Joplin on tv, but let me tell you it isn't anything like seeing it in person. I have family in Joplin and we live 15 minutes away and got some damage ourselves, not to our home but outside stuff. My Mom, my Grandma, my Aunt and my Great Grandpa all lost their homes in the storm but they are all safe. Praise God! I've been there the last two days helping to salvage whatever we could. We were able to save quite a bit of pictures and kitchen stuff from my mom's. It's just all a mess.

Today will be spent at home cleaning the pictures I got out of Mom's and getting them to storage. I also have to clean out our fridge. Something happened to it during the power outage and it isn't working right. We had generators to keep it going but it didn't help, it is something wrong with the fridge. So we saved our big freezer with the generator, but I think we lost everything in the fridge in the house. I'm not looking forward to cleaning it out but I keep thinking how blessed I am just to have one to clean out. There are so many people here that don't now.

Please keep praying, the weather today looks like more rain. We had tornado warnings again last night! It just keeps raining and storming which isn't helping the rescue efforts. The sun did come out yesterday and that was such a blessing after working in rain all day Monday. There is still alot of work to do in Joplin and people still missing, so please keep praying.

Blessings,
Rashel

ABC's of a Godly Home Day S

Day S - Serve and Scrub

Spiritual Challenge Day S- Serve. Jesus was the greatest example of how to be a servant and we should learn from Him. He didn't serve because He had to and He didn't serve because He was lower than others. He had every right to make others serve Him, yet He chose to be a servant instead. What an awesome example for us! Galatians 5:13 reminds us "..but through love serve on another." Your spiritual challenge today is to pray and ask God to give you a servant's heart for your family. If your heart attitude is right, you will willingly serve and do it with the right attitude. If you serve because you know you have to but you harbor bitter feelings, your attitude will show it and your family will know it. How much better a blessing would it be if you served with a right heart, out of love for them and a genuineness for their happiness? Pray for your heart attitude and then look for ways to lovingly serve your family today and each day.

Physical Challenge Day S - Scrub. Okay this one is pretty self explanatory isn't it? Your physical challenge today is to scrub, but what do I scrub you ask? I will let you decide because I am not in your home and I don't know what needs it most but you do. I will give you some ideas though. Walk into your kitchen and look at your sink. Can you see the bottom of it or are there dishes piled in it? Look at the back of it behind the faucet, is there any gunk building up back there? If you answered yes to either of those, than I suggest you start by scrubbing your kitchen sink. If there are dishes in the way, wash them first and then get out your favorite cleaner and scrub in and all around your sink. Or maybe you should walk into your bathroom and look at your shower. Now don't get scared it's okay, that soap scum doesn't bite. Can you see that layer all around the bottom of your tub? Are there water spots in the corners? Perhaps you should scrub you shower instead. Again, I'll let you decide. You take a look and see what needs it worst and start there. IF you have time, then you can just keep on scrubbing until you've done your kitchen and bathroom sinks, the toilet and the shower! However, don't get obsessed and don't neglect your family. If it would help, set the timer for 15 minutes and just scrub until it goes off. Have fun!

ABC's of a Godly Home Day R

Day R - Rest and Rest

Spiritual Challenge Day R - Rest. "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28. Today we are going to talk about two kinds of rest, the spiritual and the physical. Spiritual rest is what our above verse is talking about, rest for your soul. We are to trust God with everything in our lives, even that one thing that you just keep hanging onto and worrying about. Give it to God. God is in control and He has the best intentions for you. He can give you rest, but you have to let Him. Your challenge for today is to pray and give every single care to God. Give Him every circumstance in your life, whether it is a job situation, a home situation, feeding your family or a health concern. Give it ALL to God. Trust Him to take care of it, He knows better how to handle it than you do anyway. Pray and lay it all down at His feet and when you get up from praying, don't pick those burdens up again. Leave them there!

Physical Challenge Day R - Rest. This type of rest is physical but I'm not necessarily talking about taking a nap. However, if you really need a nap, take one! I actually want to encourage you to rest by taking a break from your household chores and playing with your children. Yes, playing can be restful. I want you to take some time today to lay aside all the busyness of life and just rest and enjoy your children. There are so many ways to play with your children, but the best way is by doing what they want to do. Don't plan play time, just tell them you want to play with them and after they get over the shock, ask them what they want to play. It's that easy. Some children might just want to pop some popcorn, snuggle up on the couch and watch a movie, that counts too. The important thing today is to take some time to leave your chores behind and spend time with your children. If you have time later, I would love for you to leave me a comment and let me know how you played.

ABC's of a Godly Home - Day Q

Day Q - Quiet and Queen

Spiritual Challenge Day Q - Quiet. 1 Peter  3:3,4 "Do not let your adorning be external-the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear- but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." Today your challenge is to look at yourself and to see if you are more concerned with your external or internal beauty. This might be easy for some of you but for others it might be really hard. The above verse reminds us that to God, our heart and our spirit are of more concern than our outer beauty. Another thing that we need to see in this verse is that we are to have a gentle and quiet spirit. Loud talk, yelling and being harsh with our words are not characteristics of a gentle and quiet spirit. So today ask God to help you have a gentle and quiet spirit and ask Him to keep your focus on your inner beauty more than your outer.

Physical Challenge Day Q - Queen. I want you to realize that you are the queen of your castle. But I'm not talking about being queen in the sense of you make all the rules, I'm talking about how set the tone for your home. As queen your attitude effects the attitudes of all those around you. Have you ever realized that? Have you ever noticed that when you are short with your children, their attitudes start reflecting that? Your physical challenge today goes along with the theme of your spiritual challenge. Today you are to smile and be positive all day! No harsh words, no short tempers and no ugly wrinkled up faces. Smile! Everytime you go by a mirror, smile. Everytime you look at one of your children, smile. When your husband gets home, smile at him. Make a conscious effort today to be a happy and joyful queen.

Just wanted to let you know I may be offline for a little bit. Tornado yesterday wiped out our power. We are safe and our home is safe, but please pray because others weren't as lucky.