Decisions, Decisions, DECISIONS!! Part II

Yesterday we talked about how in the course of any given day we make so many decisions it is basically impossible to keep track of them all. But there is one decision we can make that is harmful—making God last! Saving Him for the end of the day, when we are tired and brain dead.

I have a friend who has a saying that describes how we as Believers often find ourselves in trouble. “We slow walk into places we never meant to go.” Over the years I’ve found this to be very true. When we don’t spend the time with the Lord our soul and spirit needs to stay strong, we begin to slow walk into places we have no business being. And since we are slowly (bit-by-bit) going there, we are often not aware it is happening—until it is too late.

One of the biggest problems we run into when we are not touching base and staying connected with God on a daily bases, is a lack of faith or a “Weak trust” in God. And that can propel us into slow walking into areas that are definitely not good for us. When our trust in God is weak, we lose confidence in Him. Shaky faith equals wavering thoughts and being double-minded in our decision making. In other words, we are back in forth from one moment to the next. Finding it hard to “believe” and stand strong—making poor decision out of fear and worry.

There are also other problems we open the door for when we are not fellowshipping with God as we should. We begin to take on doing things in our own strength. It only stands to reason, because if we’re not spending time with Him concerning our problems, then we have to take on working them out ourselves. And that leads to even more trouble.

Noah spent the beautiful sunny gorgeous days building the Arch and preparing for the storm. And when the rains and flood hit…he was prepared! We should follow his example. If we have a day where we look at our “To Do List” and feel very accomplished but didn’t spend quality time with God…then we are not following Noah’s example. Can you imagine Noah and his sons trying to build the Arch once the rains started? It would have been impossible. But that is what some of us like to do. When things are moving along pretty well, we don’t make the time for God we should, but when the storms of life hit (and they are going to come) then we are scrambling to be with God and build our arch of confidence in the pounding rain and flood.

Sisters, please spend time reading your Bibles on a daily bases. And I’m not just talking about a little 15 minute devotional you do every day. I’m talking about becoming disciplined in making quality time where you sit down and just read and talk to the Lord about what you are reading and how it affects your life. Have a conversation with God, which means sit and listen to what He has to say to you.

We cannot escape the daily decision making in our lives, and some days are more overwhelming than others, but one of the best decisions we can make in the course of our day—is time spent with the Lord!



Love & Hugs
Ponnie

Marcia will be joining us tomorrow!

Decisions, Decisions, DECISIONS!!

Decisions are something we make continuously throughout our day. The alarm goes off—do we hit snooze for 9 more minutes or do we get up? From the beginning of our day to the end, we do nothing but make decisions—I’m a little tired I think I’ll turn in early tonight.

We make so many decisions in the course of one day it is probably impossible to count them. What’s for breakfast, what am I going to wear? What am I packing for lunches, do I have time for coffee or will I get some on the way to work. Once the kids are out the door and on their way to school, what do I do first? Do I make the beds, clean up the breakfast dishes, sneak on Facebook before I start my chores? And this is just the first hour and a half that we have been up. Get my point? Realistically trying to count the many decisions we make every day—Impossible! But with any decision making there is always room for human error and even in the little everyday things of life we are not always as prudent as we could be.

How many will raise their hands to admit there are times when you spend too much time on Facebook? Personally I have found myself washing breakfast and lunch dishes right before it is time to cook dinner. Well, I usually wash them together most days because I don’t have that many and it saves on water and dish detergent. This is supposed to happen right after lunch is finished….not four or five hours later. What happened? I jumped on Facebook for a quick minute to see what was going on and that quick minute turned into a quick couple of hours. Poor decision on my part. We all make them during the course of our day—it’s normal to stray from the script of things we are suppose to be doing. ~Smile~ But then there are those decisions that we make on a daily bases that aren’t as easy to rectify as washing the dishes before starting supper.

The decision to put off spending time with the Lord is one that has far more reaching consequences then rushing around at the end of the day to wash dirty dishes, freshen up the bathrooms and vacuum before the kids or your husband walks through the door. And though the consequences can be more devastating then your husband asking, “What did you do all day?” they are most often not as oblivious as dirty dishes in the sink, or an unmade bed.

We will try our best to rectify the things we have put off during the day, especially if someone else is going to see that we weren’t on top of things. So, by the end of the day our houses are neat and tidy and all the laundry is washed, folded and put away. But then we are too tired to rectify the fact that we really didn’t spend time with the Lord. But that is okay because He loves us and we will make it up to Him tomorrow. And when tomorrow comes we have to start making decisions the moment our eyes open, which translates into—off to the races with all the things we have to do just to get our day started. And once again we make the decision to spend time with the Lord later. But later doesn’t come.

Most of us would never think about going 10 days without washing dishes, our dirty clothes, changing our bed linens, mopping our floors, dusting our furniture, food shopping for our family…no way! But we can easily find ourselves letting 10 days go by and not really spend much time reading our Bibles or talking to the Lord. And when I say talking to the Lord, I’m not talking about our long laundry list of things we want Him to do for us or our families. I’m talking about spending quiet time so we can hear what He wants from us.

When we make the decision to put off God, we make one the worst decisions of our day. If you’ve been allowing the many other things in life to come before God, make the decision “today” that’s going to change.

Tomorrow we will take a look at the type of consequences we encounter from not spending the time with our Father that we should. Be sure to tune in!



Love & Hugs
Ponnie

See you tomorrow!

The Temptation to Overextend

“Resist the temptation to take on more than you can effectively handle. Any over-extension could deplete your resources physically, emotionally, financially or spiritually. Exercise sound judgment when making choices and you would do well to be conservative. The enemy would love to stretch you beyond your abilities.” I read this on a friend’s Facebook status a week or so ago and it struck home so much, I wanted to write about it.

Mostly when we think about resisting temptation, it covers things like, fornication, lying, stealing, cussing folks out, gossiping, adultery, gambling, over eating, giving folks a piece of your mind…you know things like that. But do we often think about the temptation to take on more than we can effectively handle? Probably not so much. As women we can easily find ourselves in the predicament of having too much on our plates, and the culprit for the overload is usually us.

Any over-extension could deplete your resources physically, emotionally, financially or spiritually, and it can make for a poor testimony for God. One important thing a Believer should be is a person of their word. An overextended person can find themselves not keeping up with what they said they would do. They often find themselves not meeting deadlines and are late with things across the board. It is important to do what we say we are going to do and in the time frame we said we would.

Speaking before we think is problem for many of us. I just did it. On Friday I made a commitment to do something before I really thought about it and found myself overextended this weekend. And to tell you the truth I was really upset with myself. At this point I should know better! Well, the truth is, I do know better. But I had a laps in poor judgment. If I had just taken a moment to think I would have remembered before hand that the day I made the commitment was already very full. I felt stuck and a little overwhelmed that day. But I knew how important it was to keep my word, so I made sure to do what I had committed myself to. Wasn’t happy about it though.

Over-extension can be a commitment that affects everyday of your life, or just one day. But either way, it is not good.

I wonder how many women at the Women of Faith Conferences have committed to sponsoring a child after their plea for World Vision, who later found it a strain on their budget? I’m sure there have been some. Because it is easy to get caught up in the emotion of things. What about that last thing you were asked to help out with at church and you said “Yes,” before counting the cost and you now find yourself in a bind trying to keep up?

I think in many cases we find ourselves overextended simply because we want to help. We have a need to nurture and we want to be doing something for God. But the trick is to “Exercise sound judgment when making choices and do well to be conservative.” In other words, take a moment to think about the small things and pray about the big things.

Why does the enemy love to stretch us beyond our abilities? Because he loves to see us fail. It brings him great pleasure when we become known as a person who does not keep her word. He is very satisfied when we are frustrated and cranky because we can’t get it all done. And if you’ve ever experienced working with an already tight budget and do something to make it even leaner, then most of you know—that is a recipe for an unhappy camper.

Sisters, it is wonderful to want to help, and feel needed. But be careful in overextending yourselves. It is better to do one thing and do it well, then to try to do two things and come up short on both of them.


Love & Hugs
Ponnie


See you tomorrow!

Taking Time Off

Blessings Sisters!!

This has turned into a week where I am a bit overwhelmed. I published my new website yesterday SingleParentsCanHomeschoolToo.com…please check us out!

I have a great passion to get the homeschooling message out to single parents, especially those who find themselves at odds with the education their child or children are receiving.

Tovah is turning 18 on Thursday and we have appointments this week in finishing up the college process and the list sort of goes on. So, I must put my “Gone Fishing” sign up for this week.

Please keep me in your prayers as I work through everything this week.

God willing, I will be back Monday the 11th with something inspiring for us all.



Blessings & Love
Ponnie

I Bless You

When you read the Old Testament you see how it was a really big deal to speak blessing over people. It was so important that Rebekah and her son Jacob tricked Isaac into giving him Esau’s blessing. (Genesis 27) But in today’s world we see many parents cursing their children versus blessing them. I’m not talking about using cuss words, but actually speaking death and curses over their children. “You will never amount to anything!” “You are worthless and good for nothing!” “You are stupid!” There is no blessing in these words, they are all curses. You also see spouses belittling and speaking curses to one another and children also imitating their parents by cursing their siblings.

We just don’t see an abundance of people speaking blessing to each other. Not the way they did in the Bible. The prophets blessed people for being generous to them and the list goes on. How come we don’t use our tongues to speak blessing to one another as much as we use them to gossip or tear down? I don’t know why, but today I want to change that and speak a few blessings to you.

May your faith in God withstand the test of time.

May you be blessed in your comings and goings.

May the love of the Messiah reign in your heart and home.

May your children rise up each day and call you blessed and beloved.

May your husband’s love for you keep its oath to God.

May your end days have more tears of joy than sadness.

May you be one who is quick to forgive and keeps no record of wrong.

May the work of your hands be blessed beyond measure.

May your disposition be quiet and one that pleases the Lord.

But most of all—May your name be written in the Book of Life!

Sisters, I challenge you to write a blessing to someone you know and send it to them through snails mail. It just might reach them on a day they need to be encouraged by the thoughts and love of someone.

Enjoy your weekend!



Blessings & Love
Ponnie

See you Monday!!