A Great Family Devotional Book

Good Wednesday morning to all of you! I hope you have plans for a wonderful day today! Wednesday is our busy, busy day. We leave right after lunch to head into town for Miss E's piano lessons, and then we spend the afternoon running errands and head to church that evening. It makes for a LONG day and a very RUSHED school morning, but I think we are getting the hang of it (after 5 months - HA! HA!)!

I thought I would let you know about a great family devotional book the Mr. and I have found. It's called Our 24 Family Ways and is written by Clay Clarkson. The Mr. and I have found it to be an excellent book with a wonderful Biblical basis! It covers the topics of authority, relationships, possessions, work, attitudes and choices. Each week, the family is given one Family Way (example: Family Way #1 under the topic of authority: We love and obey our Lord, Jesus Christ, with wholehearted devotion.), one short Bible passage to memorize, and one character trait to go along with the Family Way. The book also includes a devotional for 5 days of the week that develop the Family Way from the Bible. The devotional provides questions to capture interest, a Bible passage to discuss, questions about the Bible passage and prayer suggestions. The book is geared more toward elementary age children, but even our 3 and 4 year olds are picking up much of what is being taught, and they can say most of the Family Ways, Bible verses and character traits and definitions with a few prompts. The book is designed for families to spend an entire week on each Family Way allowing your family a chance to really incorporate what is covered into your every day life. This also gives plenty of time to fully memorize and understand the Scripture passages. If your family works on one Family Way each week, this devotional will last for 24 weeks - that's almost 6 months! The book also includes coloring pages for each Family Way and ideas for "Our Family Way Notebooks." If you have children ages 6 or older, I would highly recommend you get a copy of this book and begin implementing it into your family devotional time. If you've never had a family devotional time, this would be an excellent tool to begin with. It's very easy to follow and doesn't take a lot of prep time. Our family is usually able to complete each day's devotional within 15 minutes (and we usually have quite a bit of "discussion time").

I will close by saying to all of us moms and dads that we must be actively and intentionally parenting. Our parents by no means "had it easy" when they were parenting, but the Mr. and I have noticed such an increase in the kind of temptations and the amount of temptations that are out there now. We, as parents, must teach our children to guard their hearts and to develop the character to be able to stand up - and to stand up alone, if necessary - for what is right. I do not believe that there is any way in this world that we as parents can fully shield our children from the world and all its temptations. Instead, we must teach them how to prepare for and fight against the temptations that they will, without a doubt, face. One of the best ways to do this is by surrounding our children with Scripture. Saturate them with it. Read it to them morning, noon and night. Memorize it with them. Your daily life needs to be completely centered around the Bible. Is this extreme? I don't believe so - especially when it's my children's lives that are at stake. We would do everything possible to keep our children from getting a deadly disease. Why are we not willing to do anything possible to keep them away from the deadly consequences of sin? Let's make sure that we as Christian parents diligently obey Deuteronomy 11:

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
~ Deuteronomy 11:18-20

Meaty Corn Bread Casserole

We're still playing catch up from last week, but I thought I'd give you another Tummy Tempting Recipe. I hope you enjoy it, and I'll try to post some more thoughts later this week!

Meaty Corn Bread Casserole
This is a great all in one meal, and one of those yummy "comfort foods."

1/2 lb. ground beef
1/2 lb. bulk pork sausage
1 3/4 cups frozen corn, thawed
1 cup water
1 envelope brown gravy mix**
1 package (8.5 oz) corn bread/muffin mix
1 tablespoon real bacon bits
1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 envelope country gravy mix**

In a large skillet, cook beef and sausage over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Stir in the corn, water and brown gravy mix. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1 minute or until thickened. Spoon into a greased 8 in. square baking dish.

Prepare corn bread batter according to directions; stir in the bacon bits, pepper and garlic powder. Spread over meat mixture.

Bake, uncovered, at 400* for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into corn bread layer comes out clean. Meanwhile, prepare country gravy mix according to package directions; serve with casserole.

**I have made both the brown and white country gravy from scratch (instead of buying the packaged gravy) with this recipe, and it works well.

At My Rope's End

Wow! This week has been a somewhat less than stellar week! (Great way to start a post, eh?) But, life is life, and life is real, and it's not always sweet and nice! One thing that I always want to be is real. So, you name it, and it has probably happened to us this week. Nights with little sleep, behind on school, bad attitudes (including mine), housework is...well, let's just not go there, trying to figure out how to pay an outrageous hospital bill (we probably shouldn't go there either), a tummy bug insists on continuing its stay in our house, and the list could go on.

Even though this week has not gone anything like I had planned, God has been growing me and stretching me. Yes, I'd rather skip all these nuisances and just grow without them, but that's not in God's plan. God's plan is to put me in a place where I depend on Him and Him alone - a place where I recognize that my efforts and abilities are nothing without Him. This week has also helped me see how much my kiddos mimic my reactions to problems when they have problems. Yep...we've had to do a lot of attitude adjusting this week.

But through this less than stellar week, God has been good and faithful as always. He kept bringing this verse to mind.

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ~ II Corinthians 12:9

When I am at my rope's end, that's when He can show Himself the most - if I will let Him! I realize my problems are nothing compared to other people's. I hope this verse will be an encouragement and comfort to all of you whether you are facing small incidentals or huge impossibilities! God is ready to show Himself strong on our behalf, and He takes pleasure in doing that for us! (II Chronicles 16:9) Isn't God good? I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed weekend, and don't forget to stop and count the little blessings God brings your way (especially when you're at your rope's end). I've listed a few of mine below.

P.S. There's a new month on the Family Fun Page. If you are looking for something small but fun to do with your kiddos, you might check it out. I'd love to hear your Family Fun ideas too! :)

1. God's faithfulness
2. Kid's laughter
3. My Mr.'s wink
4. UNO Attack
5. My baby's smiles
6. The smell of clean laundry
7. A sunshiny day
8. Our nice car
9. Family dinner every night
10. God's Word