Category Archives: Daily Life

>A Little Piece of My Life

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I thought I would share today a piece of my life with you in the form of a letter…
Dearest Friend,
How grateful I am for you today; I give thanks to my God for friends who encourage me to walk in the faith like you do.
I am very happy this day because in Mexico, we celebrate Mother’s Day today, yes, we celebrate it every May 10th. My children woke me up with kisses and hugs, with cards and words that filled my eyes with tears. I am grateful also because my mom is coming today to have a nice lunch with us. My little one, who longs to grow to be a chef, will be cooking for us some cannelloni, filled with ricotta cheese and spinach. We are looking forward to that!
My oldest son will have this morning a presentation of his senior thesis on his online school.  Have I told you how much we have been blessed by this online school? Yes, I am sure I have told you that before; having godly teachers influencing our children is a wonderful gift, one that we don’t take for granted. I pray our son will do a great job; he has been preparing himself for this all year round. My prayer is that God may help him to grow into a man who uses his words wisely and to bring glory to God.
This week is also our daughter’s 16th birthday! I am so proud of her; being the mom of such a precious young lady is my joy. She loves her family, is very patient with her sister and loves photography; in fact Daddy bought her a new camera for her birthday which she is already using. You can see this beautiful picture she took on Sunday to celebrate motherhood.
Annie Pliego Photograhy
As you may recall I joined a wonderful project in January entitled Partner 2 Remember in which we devoted ourselves to memorize the epistle of Paul to the Philippians. I tried to keep you posted on my advanced, but while I was working behind the scenes in the Doctrines in the Kitchen series, I did not write about this project. Well, let me tell you with great joy that I did memorize Philippians! I could not believe it did happen! Oh my dear friend, I must tell you how many times I thought I would not accomplish it, but God who is rich in mercy had mercy on me and helped me to persevere. He even put friends on my way to pray for me like Mrs. Hankins, who proved to be a faithful friend. Now I can taste the fruits of a hard labor and Oh,  how sweet they are! I am still reviewing my memory project, so you will see me carrying my little Moleskine at all times with me! I encourage you, as I have done in the past, to start doing this; to start working hard to fill your heart and mind with the Word of God, our only sure hope in a world that hates Him.
Well, this week I just started to memorize a new book of the Bible, the epistle of James,  along with some friends; this time we are doing it in Spanish. But, if you want, you could join us too. We will take 17 weeks for this project; which means that we will only have to memorize approximately one new verse daily.  I am so excited!
Last week, I had the opportunity to go on a trip with my husband and one of my daughters, so as you can imagine; I have many papers to grade, books to read and groceries to buy! And you want to know something? Next week I will be traveling again! and…yes, after a week back home, we all we’ll travel to our family vacation to meet friends we love dearly. I share all this with you, because, as you can imagine, I don’t know how often I’ll be posting during May on my blog. Remember, that you can follow my journey in pictures on my photography journal. You’ll know, however, that I will be around, doing what God has set before me to do! 
You asked me what I have been reading lately: Let me tell you,  I read The Greener Grass Conspiracy by Stephen Altrogge, a book I highly recommend; and did I ever told you that I worked on a review? You can read it here, if you are interested. I am almost finished with another excellent book by Tim Challies, The Next Story. A must read I would  dare to say; a book that all Christians who use technology must read, yes, even we, moms  and grandmothers who blog or love to read blogs.  And of course, I am enjoying a great conversation hosted by my dear friend Elizabeth; several of my wonderful friends are meeting over at her blog once a week to discuss a book that you probably won’t pick at the library; it is a book that teaches about the doctrine of suffering. The book is entitled, A Place for Weakness by M. Horton. And we already discussed chapter one. 
My dear friend, I long to see you face to face and share a good cup of coffee with you soon, yes, on the same table and seeing your eyes and listening to your laugh.
Meanwhile, keep me in your prayers as I keep you in my prayers too,
Your friend always,

Becky

P.S. I forgot to mention that I bought a new pair of walking shoes, some special shoes that promise to help me walk and exercise effectively and more …We’ll see how they do that! đŸ˜‰

>I am Preparing a Banquet.

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Have you ever planned a great feast for many?  Or a  banquet? Or a wonderful reunion with many friends that you love and want everything to be special and beautiful for them?
Well, that is exactly what I am doing. I am preparing a great banquet for you, yes for YOU!
And this kind of banquet is an old fashioned one. It will last a month. Can you imagine, a whole month of getting together, feasting, laughing, some times crying and many times falling to our knees in prayer?
I am excited about this, so be ready!
Consider this to be an invitation, the feast will start this next Friday, April 1st.
Be sure to come and invite your dearest friends. O, and I forgot to mention that just as in every good celebration, there will be surprises for some of you to take home!
I will be here, waiting for you.
Until then,

>The Organized Heart; a Woman’s Guide to Conquering Chaos by Staci Eastin – A Review-

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> I dare to say that this is undoubtedly the first and most important book any Christian woman who wants to start living a disciplined and organized life should read.

Cruciform Press

Through its easy and very engaging prose, the author, Staci Eastin, deals with the issues of the heart that are behind the scenes of the chaos and disorder in a woman’s life. At the same time, she encourages her readers to apply the gospel to the real problem we face when our house seems a mess, and the drawers are upside down and there has been no milk or juice in the fridge for several days: Our sinful nature.

This is a book that starts to deal with a very practical problem the way we should always start dealing with any issue of our daily life: Seeing our sinful nature and applying the good news of the Gospel to every aspect of our life.

The author Staci Eastin, knows the Word of God and applies it to her writing. She knows that we can’t conquer any sin in our life apart from God’s grace, she says,

“We never conquer sin by adding more rules. That’s what the Pharisees did, and Jesus chastised them for it. Jesus is interested in more than just outward works; he wants us to perform good works from the overflow of a loving and pure heart. My attempts to get organized always failed because I tried to change my habits without letting the Holy Spirit change my heart. It was only when I saw the sinful motivations behind my bad habits that I could see lasting change in my life.”

“Holiness is something we must strive for (Hebrews 12:14), and we must start in the heart. Identifying the heart issues behind your disorganization will enable you to repent of them. Through the strength of the Holy Spirit, you can rid yourself of these idols (Romans 8:13).”

Staci Eastin points that the real sin behind a disorganized life, is a heart issue and one that at the end is idolatry; it is from here that she deals through her book with four idols we have made and more that often bow to them:

“In this book, I have identified four idols that seem to particularly hinder women from serving God effectively. They are leisure, busyness, perfectionism, and possessions. You may find that you only struggle with one or two, or you may discover that your problems have their roots in all four. I will examine all of them so that you, by the grace of God, can identify where your weaknesses lie, and begin to experience a more joyful walk with the Lord.”

This is a short book (it has only 108 pages), and I would suggest that you read it with your journal at hand, because every chapter closes with a section entitled “Explore” in which the author interacts with her readers posing a few questions and pointing to several passages of the Scriptures (that you need to look up, another thing I appreciate) to dig deeper into the Truth that can set us free.

 So, be encouraged, my friends, to read this book before the other one that teaches you “how to organize your closet in 24 days and live happily ever after”.

Learning with you,

Dear visitor, thanks for stopping by. I hope I’ll get to “see you” back soon!

>What this Blog is Not About

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>After almost two years of blogging I can say how beautiful it has been to make new friends and keep in touch with old ones. I have also discovered that some words are noble indeed and deserve to be published, that taking pictures is fun and helps me capture beautiful moments that otherwise would be lost. I have learned that coffee goes really well with a keyboard and I have discovered the joy of writing, sharing and  reaching.

Today I just want to say what this blog is not.

It is not a place to find the Word of God. Please do not read it, never, if you read this instead of God’s Word!

It is not a place to look for words that will make you feel better. My goal is not to make you ponder about yourself, your own emotions. The world is full of that. Full of emptiness, of selfishness. Always trying to find an easy way out from the guilt that sin brings.

I am not pursuing a New Age type of Christianity or Contemplative Spirituality. I believe in meditation, but only on God’s word and the way God commands it. I believe that the waiting and the being still should flow from my relationship with God. Waiting must be always under His sovereign Providence. God’s word is the only Truth. Jesus is the only Way and salvation is by grace. I am Reformed in my Theology and that is my stand.

It is not a place to find yourself. The only safe way to look inside yourself is to examine your walking with the Lord in the light of the Scriptures.

“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!”
2 Corinthians 13:5

My prayer is that my words will bring grace to you, but I also pray that His perfect, all-sufficient Word brings life to you, and that His Word will be all-sufficient for you!

This I pray, Daily On My Way to Heaven.

Are you memorizing the Scriptures or are planning to start soon? Then enter my giveaway.

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>Friday – Having Friends Over-

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>Today some friends of ours with their children will be coming for lunch, we are very excited about that! It is a great thing to do before mid-term exams start on Monday, don’t you think?

I will make something simple, but very yummy. It is something like a pizza with goat cheese, mozzarella, pretty slices of tomato, olive oil and rosemary.

Do you get the idea? I use puffed pastry for the base, very simple but we all love it!

To be true, I wish you could come too!

Now, I also found this these pretty nice project projects to do this weekend, hope you like it them, and find it them fun to do.

A pretty fabric origami box …

How About Orange

A fun calendar (a free download) to keep record of ALL the books we will read this year, right?

For my friends living where white snow is everywhere, I read these ideas on how to “Beat the January Doldrums” (Read the comments, too!), maybe you will find some inspiration there!

I would love also to share with you how my P2R project is coming along, but… I am running late, so if I have time later today, I will be back to share with you about that. (We are already on week 2!)

Thank you for visiting,  
for your kind comments this week, 
for sharing my journey!

Under His sun and by His grace,