Author Archives: Becky Pliego

About Becky Pliego

I am grateful because God, in His grace, called me out of darkness and into his admirable light. When I did not look for Him, He found me. When I was in a pit of sin, He rescued me. I am not walking this road alone, my family is always with me, and we love Him, because He loved us first.

Cultivating a Christ-Centered Christmas: Suggested Resources

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Advent is around the corner (it starts the last Sunday of November) which is why today, as time approaches, I want to suggest to you several resources that have been a blessing in our home as we wait, as we sit around the family table, and read about His glorious coming.

Noël Piper says about Advent,

“For four weeks, it’s as if we’re re-enacting, remembering the thousands of years God’s people were anticipating and longing for the coming of God’s salvation, for Jesus. That’s what advent means—coming. Even God’s men who foretold the grace that was to come didn’t know “what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating.” They were waiting, but they didn’t know what God’s salvation would look like.” (source)

Please, continue to read over at Desiring Virtue. (and make sure to link up to your own recommendations!)

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Related posts:

Celebrating the Incarnation of our Lord -part 1-
Celebrating the Incarnation of our Lord -part 2: Gifts We Bring a guest post by Elizabeth DeBarros- 
Celebrating the Incarnation of our Lord -part 3- For Little Souls
Celebrating the Incarnation of our Lord -part 4-
Celebrating the Incarnation of our Lord – Calvin, Sermon on the Nativity of Christ-
Celebrating the Incarnation of our Lord: Quotes that Nourish

Desiring Virtue

How to Start Your Mornings, and Two New Recipes Added to Our Repertoire

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Mornings can be beautiful or awful, and we moms have the “power” to make them either. What about instead of “Hurry up!” our first words to our children are:

“This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118: 24

These are the  first words I love my children to hear every morning; and the words I speak to myself every morning as I wake up, and believe it or not, they can help you open your eyes without grumbling!

Isaac Watts wrote a beautiful hymn based on this Psalm, the first stanza says,

This is the day the Lord hath made;
He calls the hours his own;
Let heav’n rejoice, let earth be glad,
And praise surround the throne.

Another way we can make mornings beautiful is by cooking a yummy breakfast. This week we tried one new breakfast recipe from my Pinterest board, “Good Morning, Breakfast is Ready”: Blueberry Crumb Cake

The Pioneer Woman

Yes, it was as delicious as it looks.

My girls also wanted to try a new recipe that some suggest is perfect for breakfast, but my girls thought it was perfect for dinner. (I guess some of our American friends are influencing us with their “breakfast for dinner habits”) This recipe comes from my board, “Sweets for Sweets Moments”: Red Velvet Crepês filled with a Mascarpone Cream Filling. My oldest girl decided to reduce the sugar, and I loved the results. They are very, very, very yummy.

Duhlicious

The third thing I made from Pinterest this week is agree with what this poster says:

Source

So, excuse me, ladies… coffee is ready and waiting for me!

“This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118: 24

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Wednesday's World of Work

Rest and Give Thanks

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Annie Pliego Photography©

Rest and Give Thanks

“This motto was inscribed on a fountain, intended for the accommodation of travelers. Weary, the traveler needs rest. Thirsty, he needs drink. Both are provided and presented to him freely, he may well therefore be directed to give thanks. The fact is,we are not half thankful enough. Perhaps if we were kept in more need — we would be more grateful for what we have. But the Lord daily loads us with his benefits. Most of us have cause to say, “My cup runs over!” The lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places, yes, we have a goodly heritage… But I fear we are very ungrateful, and are apt to dwell more on a few trials — than on a thousand mercies. May the Lord, by his Holy Spirit, open a fountain of gratitude in all our hearts.

But the motto of the fountain, is very much like the gospel. That calls us to REST:

To rest from labor and useless toil.

To rest from cares and fears.

To rest from doubts and misgivings.

To rest in the midst of a restless world.

To rest at the feet of Jesus.

To rest on the Word of Jesus.

To rest on the finished work of Jesus.

To rest and be safe.

To rest and be happy.

Faith, is resting on Jesus — staying ourselves on his Word, on his perfect work. Trusting him to save us. Confiding in him to answer for our sins, provides for us a title to Heaven, and prepares us for going there.

Jesus gives . . .
rest to the troubled conscience,
rest to the weary heart,
rest to the anxious spirit,
the moment we believe on him.

Sinner, here is rest for you. Carry your burden no further. Labor for life no longer. You are heavy laden, “Rest and Give Thanks!”

Thank God for such a precious Savior.

Thank God for such a seasonable rest.

Thank God for a fountain of living water.

Thank God for a free salvation — a full salvation;

so that it is represented by an ever full, an ever flowing fountain.

Thank God that you live in such a day — in such a place.

Rest and enjoy yourself, and then praise God.

Drink and satisfy your soul, and for such a favor give God thanks.

May I, as I pass along the journey of life, and amidst all its weariness, keep my eye on Jesus, and “rest and give thanks.”

James Smith, 1860

I am grateful because the Lord is teaching me what it means to pray without ceasing.

The Valley of Vision and my friends who are praying along.

For the examples of women of faith who have challenged me to consider how I am living in the moment of History in which it has pleased God to frame my life.

“I Thank you for showing me the vast difference between knowing things by reason, and knowing them by the Spirit of faith” The Valley of Vision

Being reminded that “good works are our response to the finished good work of Christ…that good works as worship are acts of thankfulness and joy” J.C. Wilson, Gospel Wakefulness

It is Monday, today we start our labor, our business, but I’d like to encourage you, whenever you feel weary, tired, when the burdens of the day are many, when the bad news come, when the day seems too long, when the tears can’t find a way out because your children are seeing you, when your soul feels heavy to take time during the day, to seek him,  to just “rest and give thanks”.

Under His sun and by His grace,

Becky

 

Praying the Psalms -Psalm 96-

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Psalm 96

1 Oh sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth!
2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
4 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
9 Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth!

10 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.”

11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

12 let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
13 before the LORD, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness.

Spurgeon names this Psalm, A Grand Missionary Hymn. A Psalm with no division “for the song is one and indivisible, a garment of praise without seam, woven from the top throughout.” (1)

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Oh Father, our God, that your people around the globe may sing Psalms to you today. Fill our mouths to sing to you a new song! God, we thank you because we do not worship your creation, but instead, we join our voices with that of the earth, the seas, the heavens, the fields.  We exult your name today, O God!

Lord I pray that our song may be transformed into actions: That we may effectually bless your name by telling of your salvation from day to day. That we may declare your glory among the nations. That we may spread the word of your marvelous works among our neighbors.

Transform our song, O Lord, into actions today!

Lord, “Blessed are the eyes which shall see the kingdom, and the ears which shall hear its songs.  Hasten your advent, good Lord!” (2)

God, our Lord, we bless your name, your fame, your Word revealed to us. We delight in singing your praises, we take great delight in proclaiming all you have done in us. How you have changed our hardened hearts, how the gospel has transformed our lives. How we love you, O Lord! How we love to sing your praises!

Father, that each day this week, we may seek opportunities to transform our singing into actions. That by our deeds, our written, and our spoken words, we may always announce the glorious message of free grace among all the people, to those close to us and even to those afar.

In your presence we sing Psalms, because you alone are greatly to be praised. It is Your name that we love and fear because you are clothed in splendor and majesty; it is only in your presence, Lord, that we find strength and beauty together, kissing each other. And as we stand in awe before you, we are encouraged by your Spirit to sing your praises, to raise our voices and bless your name.

Mighty God, Merciful Father, you have saved your people to bring glory to your name, so that may  worship you and long for you. And today, as we sing your praises from every corner of the world, we also pray with one voice: Don’t haste your coming, O Lord! Come, Lord Jesus! We won’t be fully satisfied until we see your face, until “truth will dispel all evil in hypocrisy.”(3) Until our voices will mingle with that of the angels singing in Heaven.

Amen

Becky

[1], [2] Spurgeon, The Treasury of David
[3] Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms

Praying the Psalms.

Lady Jane Grey, An Example of Faith -and a Giveaway-

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Have you gone through hard providences? Were you raised by stiff parents who abused you emotionally and maybe even physically? Has you heart become hardened and bitter?

Today at Women of the Reformation, I share about Lady Jane Grey, a woman who suffered hard providences, and was raised by stiff parents who even abused her. However, she was grounded in the Word of God in such a way that she “stood firmly, facing death, not with a bitter heart against her earthly father, or against the Queen, but with her eyes fixed on Eternity, on Jesus Christ. Her heart had not been set on earthly treasures but on the things that are not from this world; and her hope did not rest in her actions, but on the saving work of Jesus Christ.”

Please, come over at Heavenly Springs with me, and be encouraged to “see how this woman understood that God is Sovereign over all circumstances, and how this understanding helped her to learn contentment while seeing God’s hand over her circumstances no matter how difficult they might be.”

I will be giving away a wonderful book, Feminine Threads: Women in the Tapestry of Christian History by Diana Lyn Severance,   if you want your name “thrown in the hat”, please leave a comment (over at the original post at Heavenly Springs) to let me know that you are interested. International entries ok.  Winners will be announced next week at the conclusion of our series.

Have a most blessed Saturday, my friends,

Becky

Love and Respect Your Calling

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Because this is too important not to read….

“Love and respect are both very transformative. A loved woman becomes more and more lovely, and respected men become more and more respectable. We all know this at a foundational level. It is true all over the world that when someone bestows love on something or someone, change is visible. I am not talking simply of emotions here – I mean the action of loving, or the action of respecting. Emotions follow actions, and it is one of the great myths of our time that love is an uncontrollable force, coming and going in ways beyond human control.”  Read the rest over at Femina today.

Becky