Here are four prayers God gave to the Apostle Paul to pray for his Christian brothers & sisters.

Ephesians 1:17-23  Ephesians 3:14-21 . Philippians 1: 9-11    Colossians 1:9-14

He wrote them in his letters to the Ephesians, Colossians and to the Philippians.

Letting go and releasing control of all the details of our kids lives isn’t for the weak. Being a mom is the most rewarding, exhausting and toughest job there is! From the physical energy it takes when they’re young to the emotional strength it takes to release them... it’s not a job with a fancy title or financial compensation but the investment we make into our children’s lives, often with our own with blood, sweat and tears, may just be the biggest impact our lives have on this earth.

Exposing The Number One Lie:

• Something has to change for me to be ok.

• Something has to change before I can do what God wants me to do.

• Something has to change before I can deal with my hurt.

• Something has to change before I can forgive.

Check this list of 5 ways our encouragement can miss it’s intended purpose. I have found these to be the biggest areas of misunderstanding as I have tried help those around me. It takes insight to know when someone is open to hearing advice, ready to listen to your own story, and when to simply listen.

One summer, when traveling, I stayed with a family who was grieving the death of their daughter. It had been 3 years since their terrible loss, and they were merely going through the motions of the life they once lived. The second night I was there, the mother confided in me she wasn’t doing well. She wasn’t sleeping, there was a disconnect in her marriage, they had stopped observing holidays and visiting friends or family. That’s when I realized just how much it was costing them to open their home to me in the midst of their grief.

Because I am a practical, methodical, and deliberate person, I like to know the big picture of any project so I can understand what my roll is in it. I love to create, sketch out ideas, organize and categorize necessary steps, and execute it all with precision, along with the best of them. This skill came in handy when raising my two sons. It has helped me accomplish many projects, everything from keeping a household running smoothly, to creating choreography and training a group to perform at the State Fair, to starting my own businesses. I love everything about creating, and the thrill of setting a new process in motion.

I took a little vacation with my husband last week. We took time to celebrate our 31st anniversary and also to decompress from life in general. It was to McCall, Idaho, a beautiful mountain getaway, about 90 miles from Boise. And to make sure I used the time to relax, I shut down my laptop and didn’t write, tweak the website or do any of my other normal things the entire week. I even took a book and planned to read. Unfortunately I packed the wrong book, one that I had recently read! But we had such a relaxing time in the mountains and at the lake it didn’t even matter.

You may hear the phrases intentional living, sustainable living, live simply, tiny living, organic and intentional living. There is another saying that rings true, “there is nothing new under the sun”. So, although these concepts are not new, they may be new to us.

About ten years ago, I was living in a 2400 square foot home, with my husband, 2 sons and 2 dogs. We were homeschooling during the day, and involved running a concert house 4 evenings a week as a mission to youth in the current music culture. It was an intense season, filled with routine chores, lesson plans, homeschool field trips, home church, raising preteen boys, and running a concert house with shows that lasted into the wee hours of the morning. I longed for a simple, and organized life, but who had time for that. What I did have time for was organizing our schedule, cutting some things out and prioritizing things that were important to us.