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.

>Heaven, My Awaited Hope

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>This month I am sharing borrowed words, quotes that nourish, about Heaven. May our heart be stirred to meditate upon Heaven.

If you want to know what heaven is,
you can spell it in five letters, and when
you put the five letters together they look
like this:

“J E S U S.”

That is heaven. It is all the heaven
the angels round the throne desire to
know. They want nothing better than
this- to see his face, to behold his glory,
and to dwell in it world without end.
(from Spurgeon’s sermon, “Christ the
Glory of His People” #826. Luke 2:32.)

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When we get to heaven, 
what joy will it be torehearse the events of the journey, 
and to see how the path was strewn all along with mercies.
How blessed will be . . .
rest after toil,
safety after peril,
victory after conflict.
Jesus will still lead us into fresh pastures,
to higher and yet higher regions of . . .
knowledge,
purity, and
bliss. 
No carnal desires will drag us down. 
No sinful habits will cling to and entangle us. 
The flesh will no longer lust against the spirit. 
No enemies will beset the road, to allure
us from it, or check our advance. 
We shall forever follow Jesus . . . 
“forever beholding fresh beauties in His countenance,
forever discovering new glories in His character,
forever experiencing fresh raptures in His love! 

May we long for Heaven and nothing less.

A Prayer for a Gospel Saturated Lent by Scotty Smith -and some resources-

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     Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast. Mark 2:19-20

“Dear Jesus, it’s Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. For the next forty days we have the privilege of surveying your cross and preparing for the greatest of all celebrations—Easter Sunday, the foundation of our hope and the fountain of eternal joy.

For your glory and our growth, we ask you to inundate us with fresh grace in the coming weeks. We don’t want an ordinary Lenten season, Jesus. Saturate it with the gospel. It’s all about you, Jesus. It is all about you what you’ve done for us, not what we promise to do for you.

Sadly, I used to dread Lent like late summer football practice. A lot of striving and sweat mixed in with much uncertainty and fear. “What’s the coach think about my performance? Am I doomed to sit on the bench? Will I even make the team this year?” What a misuse of the season of Lent. What a complete misrepresentation of the gospel. What a dismal way to live the Christian life. We’re your betrothed bride, not a beleaguered people.

Indeed, Jesus, we begin Lent today anticipating our wedding, not our funeral. Jesus, for you’re the loving Bridegroom who died to make us your cherished bride. The work’s already done; the dowry has been pain in full; the wedding dress of your righteousness is already our; the invitations have been sent out; the date has been secured; you’ll not change your mind! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Over these next 40 days intensify our hunger, assurance, and longing for the Day of your return—the Day of consummate joy, the wedding feast of the Lamb. In light of that banquet, we choose to deny ourselves (fast) certain pleasures for this brief season. But we’re not looking to get one thing from you, Jesus, just more of you. Fill our hearts with your beauty and bounty, so very Amen, we pray, in your holy and loving name.”

Scotty Smith

 

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Our family meditates on the doctrine of the Incarnation during the Christmas season, and we set this time to meditate on the Cross and the Resurrection of our Lord.

Some books I love to study on this topic, and I would like to recommend you are:

Monergism

 

Monergism

 

Monergism
Monergism

 

Monergism

 

Monergism
Monergism

May we set a time apart to examine our heart who is deceitful above all things…

Under His shadow,

 

A quote from an interesting article by Douglas Wilson,

“God wants us to give certain things up too — things like sin, and self-righteousness, and superstition, and a number of other things that begin with s. He does not want us to give up chocolate, which begins with a c…

So beware. The devil loves it when he is the god of Lent, or of the sabbath, or of anything else we think we are offering to God.”

>On Deadlines and Following Instructions

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This is a very practical post, but one that I have been wanting to write for several months now, ready? Well, it is about two simple things, but VERY important things that we homeschoolers might not be teaching our kids:

Work under the “pressure” of deadlines and follow instructions.

We brag on how good we are at teaching our children so many things, but these two, believe me, these two are more important than what you think they are.

Provide your children, even from their early years, many opportunities to practice these disciplines. Give them deadlines and expect them to submit the given assignments on time, no matter what! It is so easy for us to say, “Yes, I understand you didn’t have time to finish your book report, we were so busy…” but just think that what we are really doing is teaching our children to be  irresponsible. Teenagers won’t fall apart if they have to stay up late at night once in a while to complete a given assignment. It will do them good.

Another good idea, is to have “open-house” presentations. For example, every quarter plan a nice presentation and invite your friends to come over and see you children’s work, their binders, notebooks, drawings;  have your children give an oral presentation about one of the topics they enjoyed. All these help your children work “under the pressure” of deadlines, which is necessary, as well as with other character traits that must be cultivated.

What about following instructions? Ask your children to turn in their assignments in a very specific way; let’s say, double-spaced, typed with a point 12 Times font, with their name and date on the upper right corner of their paper, etc… and be ready to lower points if they don’t follow the instructions carefully. I know, it seems kind of weird to do this, but it is VERY important that our children learn how to follow instructions.

Little ones, must learn to follow instructions as well; if you say use a red crayon to underline, expect them to use red crayon… even if this means that  they’ll have to look for it  because that  specific crayon is the one missing! Have them label their work neatly and teach them to always use a sharpened pencil and a nice and clean eraser.

If we put some effort on teaching these two simple things we will be teaching them a lot.

What do you think?

How do you teach your children to work under the “pressure” of deadlines and follow instructions?

>My Favorite List -Every Monday-

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“When the thoughts are scattered and distracted about the cares of life, a man is not fit for devotion. Discontent takes heart wholly off from God and fixes upon the present trouble, so that a man’s mind is not upon his prayer, but upon his cross”
Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

Because I want to discipline my mind, my heart not to wander, I give thanks to God as a continual offering, a sacrifice of thanksgiving all day, every day.

1185. A girl, the joy of still having a little girl home.

1186. A young lady enjoying a great vacation with a beautiful family.

1187. A baby girl growing in my sister’s womb.

1188.  My two young men who love to be at home as well as going to the movies with their Dad on weekends.

1189. Markers, and pens, and pencils all over our house, always ready to be used.

1190. Homemade Oreo Cookies! Yummy!

1191. My son’s creativity. (Amazing what he built with cardboard boxes and lots of patience!)

1192. Heart- Shaped leaves that helped me remember God’s word.

1193. Pasta night… It so much fun to be all six crammed in the kitchen and chatting while cooking pasta once a week.

1194. Happy friends planning a trip with us.

1195. An excellent reminder to pray for our spouses in the workplace.

1196. The Word of God, an anchor to our soul when troubles rise.

1197. The Word of God, which is a lamp unto my feet in the days when it is too foggy to see clearly.

1198. The Word of God, which points to my sin.

1199. The Word of God, which is sufficient to feed my soul.

1200. The Word of God, the only book in the whole word that is infallible and perfect.

1201.The Word of God, which enlightens our minds and help us discern.

1203. The Word of God, the ultimate authority in all matters.

May we remember this week that “in every loss there is only suffering, but in every discontent there is a sin; and one sin is worse than a thousand sufferings.” (Thomas Watson)

Blessings to you on your week, dear friends!

Grow in Grace

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“Grow in Grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ”       2 Peter 3:18
Am I growing in grace, Lord? 

 

“The question is always useful, but especially so at certain seasons. A Saturday night, a communion Sunday, the return of a birthday, the end of a year – all these are seasons that ought to set us thinking and makes us look within. Time is fast flying. Life is fast ebbing away. The hour is daily drawing nearer when the reality of our Christianity will be tested, and it will be seen whether we have built on the Rock or on the sand. Surely it becomes us from time to time to examine ourselves and take account of our souls? Do we get on in spiritual things? Do we grow?”
“When I speak of growth in grace I only mean increase in degree, size, strength, vigour and power of the graces which the Holy Spirit plants in the Believer’s heart. I hold that every one of those graces admits of growth, progress and increase. I hold that repentance, faith, hope, love, humility, zeal, courage, and the like may be little or great, strong or weak, vigorous or feeble, and may vary greatly in the same man at different periods of his life. When I speak of a man growing in grace, I mean simply this – that his sense of sin is becoming deeper, his faith stronger, his hope brighter, his love more extensive, his spiritual mindedness more marked. He manifests more of it in his life. He is going on from strength to strength, from faith to faith and from grace to grace.”

J.C Ryle on Holiness

May this Lord’s Day be a day of examining ourselves, to see if we are growing in grace…