Category Archives: Daily Life

Where To Start

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We have been unpacking after a month of being away; we unpacked clothes, gifts, books, Belgian chocolates, art reproductions, and memories.

Now we must jump into what is next, books and notebooks, and schedules and routine. I love all these, I love to have them because they frame my life. They help me love the ordinary and know that in those simple days is where I am called to live my Christianity. I love routine and schedules because they help me grow into a disciplined woman, and the Lord has been gracious to me, He has helped me to find His joy in my daily life.

I have been meditating about Proverbs 23: 12 as I have been preparing my heart for a new school year.

“Apply your heart to instruction
 and your ear to words of knowledge.”

Apply your heart to instruction…

This is a good place to start, I must apply my heart to instruction.

Homeschooling is not easy, it requires hard work, and applying my heart to instruction must be  part of such work.

Think of ways to apply your heart to instruction:

* Wake up earlier.
* Plan your lessons and review them.
* Read good books.
* Learn along  with your children.
* Spend less time in those things that you know are not worthy of your time.
* Set limits.
* Once you set up your school year do not go pondering over the “newest” curriculum.
* Teach with love.
* Teach with joy.
* Teach with enthusiasm.

And obviously this list is just a starting point; pray and search your heart, ask the Lord and your husband and even to your children how can you improve your teaching ministry at home.

Apply… your ears to words of knowledge…

As calendar squares start to be filled up with activities and due dates, remember to apply your ears to words of knowledge.  The Word of God is the first place we should come to drink and find knowledge and wisdom; then we should come to our husband, and then we may find a friend, a godly friend. But beware of friends who complain at all times and are always tired and never happy. Those friends that quench your spirit. Find friends that speak words of knowledge, and once you find them listen to them (and don’t let them the go!). Be encouraged by them. Let them water your soul when you feel tired and overwhelmed.

His grace is sufficient.

Grace for Today... a beautiful reminder at Theology for Girls.

When Light Meets Daily Life -III- and The Bruised Reed Ch. 3

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The pictures on this post are from Claire B.
Aren't they great? Thank you, Claire for letting me use them.
 

This is the second Thursday I share about the book we are reading together at Challies.com The book is The Bruised Reed by the Puritan author Richard Sibbes.
My comments on chapters 1 and 2 are here.

 
 
 
 

Chapter 3. The Smoking Flax

This is not an easy chapter, this is a chapter that brought tears to my eyes. Its words are like spades, they reached deep within my soul.

Sibbes, reminded me on how my spiritual life started, with little faith, with a “small beginning of grace” . And I just can’t but think how even that little portion of faith was given to me as an undeserved gift by my Father in Heaven, and was enough to save my life from an eternity far from Him.

So broken, so bruised, so dirty was my life, but He reached and gave me His saving Grace to “strive to perfection, and to keep me in a low opinion of myself“

He saw me; He reached to me, a bruised reed, and did not break me forever, He did not despise me.

Little beginnings full of grace. That is all we need.

Grace upon grace.

Grace for every day.

Small changes soaked in His grace.

Grace came and changed me, it gave me eternal life, but “grace does not do away with corruption all at once, but some is left for believers to fight with. The purest actions of the purest men need Christ to perfume them; and this is his office.”

The thorns of my flesh, are there, every day, to remind me of my desperate need of Him. To remind me that I am a bruised reed , to “preserve me from those two dangerous rocks which our natures are prone to dash upon, security and pride…”

I am in a daily journey to heaven…and “even as a candle in the socket shows its light, and sometimes the show of light is lost; so sometimes “I am” well persuaded of myself, sometimes at a loss.”
So here too, I see His light shining on this bruised reed, which is my own life.

A repost from the archives 

 

When Light Meets Daily Life -II-

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The journey continues,
and Claire B.'s pictures from her 365 light project,
are  my inspiration this week.
Remember, that Claire will be with us this coming Saturday.
Thank you, Claire!
 
 
 

Light comes in through the window and lights up our home.

The night has gone, and God has opened our eyes to a new day.

The coffee is ready and the routine is awaiting.

This is my life, our life, a routine, a circle of tasks and chores, a to do list; and night and day.

We can not evade it, there is a cycle, and we are in it.

But if I am a Christian, there is more to do this, there is Light coming into my daily life.

When I sit and open my Bible, and pray and see His light coming into my heart, I know there is a purpose in what I am doing today.

I am not only living for the moment, I am living for Him, because of Him.

I am where He wants me to be today.

When I see light coming through my window, I remember.

His light is with me, in my home, in the dining room, in my daily life.

I believe His words, He has called me, I do not walk in darkness.

His light has shone on me!

“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12

 




 


 


A repost from the archives. 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
When Light Meets Daily Life

			
						

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A Repost from the archives.



This week I will be journeying with my friend Claire B.
I just love her photography and the project she has pursued this year
entitled,365 light project.


 


I will be writing on how light meets my daily life using her art.


 








 




Shopping carts lined up to be used, dirty wheels, and shiny metal,  all look the same, all there. 




A mom comes and grabs one, her hands are  holding the shopping list, again. 




Again, the toilet paper, and the cleaner, the shampoo, and the toothpaste, yes, again. 




There is no milk, or juice in the fridge and again rushing and running, dragging her feet, 




she is here, again.




 


The wheel is not working, she needs to push harder. 




Her heart is sinking, again; and again she whispers, 




“Again, again, routine again. 




Never ending, always in a circle “




 


The thoughts of the day, the prayers unsaid, the lump on her throat, again.




 


My prayer is for you today, my Christian friend; 




if it is you pushing hard the broken wheels, 




trying hard to manage your day again, 




that you may stop today to see His light.




 


I have been learning this, 




God meets me in my daily life. 




His light shines on me as I go into my chores, as I push the cart.





 


Is it useful to have my theology right, my doctrines right, if I can not see His light meeting me in my 




daily life?




 


I am still learning.




 


Let your light, O God, shine on me!




 


Let me learn again, that it is for You that I come and go.




 


Forgive me again, for living a life without joy.




 


Remind me, that it is in my daily journey, that I walk towards heaven.




 


Daily life matters, shine on me, 




O Lord, again!










My first post in this blog, was just about this, Rejoicing in Our Daily Tasks.

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
End of the Summer Changes

			
						

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We can start smelling the new notebooks and wooden pencils; the books with wornout pages are almost ready to be opened like treasure chests, to display magnificent worlds.


But here, in this corner of the world, we will leave all those behind as we travel for a month to visit friends in another corner of the world. We are almost ready, Sunday we will fly.




So expect some changes in this place.


I would love to tell you all about our trip, and show you great pictures daily, however, I do not know if that will be possible.


I have scheduled some entries, reposts from the archives, for you to enjoy; and remember that you can still go back to the my old place where you will find 255 entries to read!


Other good places to visit are these:


Femina
Theology for Girls
Heavenly Springs
Caffeinated Theology
Reduce Me to Love
Penned Pebbles
Tried by Fire
Raising Homemakers


May the Lord give us peace and joy as we travel to meet our very good friends on the other side of the world!


Blessings to you!




Just a note, remember that you can become a sojourner with me at the bottom of the main page, or you can subscribe to this blog via your favorite reader.

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Preparing Our Hearts and Schoolroom

			
						

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Moving books from one shelf to the other; hanging maps, and cleaning some other shelves; checking our list of books, making lesson plans and buying binders, notebooks and pencils all must be ready for a new school year.


So our hearts must be ready.


I was thinking about this while cleaning our schoolroom; what about my heart is it ready for a new school year? Am I preparing myself to be the Christian example my children need?


The only way to keep on doing this great task of homeschooling, is to stop and see what an impossible task it is; and it is only through God’s grace that we will be able to do it. The moment we start trusting on ourselves, the moment we hear ourselves saying that we can easily manage our children’s souls, that is the moment to fall on our knees and ask for repentance, because we are not trusting anymore on our Father but on our own selves.


Let us go in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to search in our hearts, and prepare us to …


Serve our children by love,
To be always ready to edify their souls.


To be able to choose beauty and lead them to it.
To live pursuing those things that are lovely and of good report.


Let us ask in prayer,
that the Lord will help us live the religion we profess amiable and inviting;
always with zeal but full with love. 


Let the Lord prepare our hearts so that we won’t forget
that we must reach our children’s hearts.


That we may not lose our temper, that we may hold our tongue
that we may fight our sinful nature and live serving them.
that we may live in a way that might say at all times:
“Come with me, journey with me, follow me,
I am On My Way to Heaven”


Only the Lord, can help us to be prepared to all the changes and trials
and uncertainties of life, giving us a content heart, a praying heart.


Let us pray as the Puritans,
“May I be in character and conduct 
like the dew of heaven,  the salt of the earth,
the light of the world, the fullness of the fountain”


Let us pray so that our hearts be well prepared to
see all things in the light of the Scripture,
always working hard, never wasting our lives,
redeeming the time.


Let us prepare our schoolroom, but most of all let us prepare our hearts.


Let us clean our schoolroom, but most of all let us clean our hearts with the Word of God.


Let us not forget that all we do is because of Him, through Him, and for Him. To God be all glory.


Lord, help me fulfill the great end of my being-
to glorify thee and be a blessing to my children.