Pride

"So obey the ways and commands of the

Lord by walking in His ways and fearing Him."

"For the Lord our God is bringing you into a good land of flowing streams and pools of water, with springs that gush forth in the valleys and the hills. It is a land of wheat and barley, of grapevines and fig trees , pomegranate, olives and honey. It is a land that is plentiful and nothing is lacking." ...."When you have eaten your fill, praise the Lord your God for the good land that He's given you."

"But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty that you do not forget the Lord your God!"....

"Do not become proud at that time and forget the Lord your God!"

"But I assure you of this: If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods (money, possessions, material things, hobbies, work, etc...) and start bowing down to them, You WILL BE DESTROYED!"

Deut. 6

His Word is quite clear.... Don't be consumed by the world and what it has to offer! Ultimately God gifts us with things in order to test us to see if we will remain faithful. So many forget the Lord or give Him just enough to get by, don't let this happen to you and risk being destroyed!

Love ya'll! Strive to be Different!!

Pics below are from our potato harvest with grammy today!

Beautiful, fresh picked blackberries I gathered this week.

This afternoon Nate and his cousin, Dylan were supposed to be outside playing baseball, as they often do. But, things got quiet and I didn't hear them anymore! Much to my surprise I found them out in the garden picking green beans:) Hot and tired, their little hands worked until they gathered them all!

This is how I found Dylan, complete with helmet for safety!

Working together

Making sure he got "just" the right ones

After a long days work, these two were exhausted!:)

Had to go inside for some koolaid and snacks!

Call to the Ministry

Just wanted to share a little glimpse into my life over the past few years since being called into the ministry. In hopes that there is someone out there who has faced the same struggles I have or is going through them now and needs some encouragement.

To take you back when I was a little girl, I always felt called to be a missionary, then as life went on, I slowly let that call go and turned away from God for a number of years. As life pressed on my husband and I were constantly being pulled back and forth between the world and being completely sold out to Him. Then in 05 when my husband was called into the ministry, I knew in my heart that God was calling us both to let go of the world and follow Him, but I struggled.... with letting go of the "world."

Regardless, we stayed obedient to His calling and went forward with following His will for our lives. Then reality set in for me.......

I loved the Lord, I wanted to do His will, I wanted to serve Him with all my soul, I wanted to be completely sold out for Him! But, I was sooo angry and resentful at the same time! So, what was wrong with me?!!!

For two years I struggled. I fought and rebelled against the Lord as well as my husband! I had all these feelings going on that I didn't know what to do with or how to deal with them.... anger, resentment, sadness, insecurity, anxiousness.... There were so many times that I wanted to give up and walk away, so many times..... But I kept pressing on...only by God's grace.

I will never forget the morning as we were driving to church, I was usually pretty bitter and angry at that time, I had tears rolling down my face and I cried out to the Lord, "what is wrong with me???! What is wrong with me Lord?" "I know you've called our family into the ministry, I want to serve you! Why can't I get it together?!" "WHY?!"

And do you know what He said to me?

In a soft gentle voice, God said,

"Jamie, I'm molding you into an extraordinary, Godly woman."

"You're going to be ok my child."

I will never forget those words He spoke to me that morning. It was like a cloud had been lifted and the angels began singing, I felt released from all those insecurities I had been feeling, all that depression I was holding on to......I felt such gentle peace like never before. God welcomed me into the ministry that day.

As I think back when we first started this journey for Christ and how emotional and hard it was for me, I'm just so thankful that regardless of the difficulties, we remained obedient.

God isn't looking for someone who can handle it all on their own, who is prideful and has all the plans already together.... He's looking for the weak, the humble.....the ones He can mold into something extraordinary! He's looking for the obedient!

"I love you Lord. I'm ready. I'm willing.

Mold me and Use me for your Kingdom. I'm all in!"

Love,

Jamie

Time of restoration

Life's Simple pleasures... enjoying precious family time together and fellowshipping with Godly friends that the Lord put in our path.

These are some photos of our recent family getaway.

I want to encourage you to spend some "simple" quality time with your family this week. I think we tend to try to please our children with these grand, expensive vacations, when in reality, all they want is a little quality time with you!:)

Maggie "driving" the boat
My huge catch!:)

So proud momma!

It's the simple things....

Relaxing on the pier

Taking a nature hike

This is what it's all about......

Love ya'll! Strive to be Different!

"If you are too lazy to plow in the right season,

you will have no food at the harvest." Proverbs 20:4

Our garden is beginning to prosper:)

Britt is so proud of his new tomato experiment,

stringing them up rather than caging them.:)

Lots of squash and zucchini


We've really enjoyed growing a garden the past few years, especially since Nate has gotten old enough to help with the harvest and picking. He loves to help us in the garden, such sweet family time.

"My heart is steadfast, oh God, my heart is steadfast;

I will sing and make music."

Psalm 57:7

Nate's first Piano recital.

One thing we've always wanted to instill in our children

is the love for music and to encourage them

to sing and play unto the Lord!

We were so proud of him this year.

He has an ear for music and loves to play.

Summer fun with good friends

"Many will say they are loyal friends, but who can find one who is really faithful?"

Proverbs 20:6

Faithful and loyal friends are few and far between, but we have been blessed to have dear friends like Tom and Jeanne who have been so supportive and encouraging to us since we've surrendered to the ministry. They've stood beside us and remained faithful to our friendship throughout the journey, we love ya'll!

Enjoying a Southern Miss Baseball Game

Had to get a pic of her curls:)

Looks so sweet and innocent:)


Waiting on Mr. Tom and Mrs. Jeanne

God's Special blessings in my life





End of School Year outing with Cousins!

It was such a hot day at the park, I think they were all ready to go!

Grammy driving her "short bus!"

It was such a treat to go by and see where Grammy works!

"Look out people! Grammy's comin!"

Before the park, we stopped at Wendy's to eat lunch and guess who we ran in to???

GRAMMY!!!

Poor Grammy didn't know what hit her to have

all those little ones barrelling in there to greet her!:) Such fun!

"Children are a Gift from God."

This year has been an amazing adventure for us with it being our first year to home school! As I reflect back and see where we started and to think of all the blessings God has bestowed upon us, it brings such happiness to my life. I consider it a privilege and honor to teach them and I thank God for entrusting their little lives to me!

Love ya'll! Strive to be Different!

Worship

Have you ever studied worship in God's Word?

Tonight I was reading in Nehemiah, totally unaware of what God was going to show me through this scripture when I started noticing how they worshiped God throughout the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem. Then it got me to thinking about all the other scripture I had read on how Christians worshipped throughout the Bible...... Then I got fired up!:)

Now, don't get me wrong, I do understand that there are many ways to worship and we all do not have to worship in the same way. But, tonight as I was reading it dawned on me that worship is serious business!

It says in Nehemiah when the Word was read aloud that the people stood up in honor of the Word of the Lord! When they worshipped, they would raise their hands to heaven and bow with their face down to the ground in honor of Him! In 1 Timothy it says wherever you assemble, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God free from anger and controversy!


I think what God's Word is saying is that we need to take worship more seriously when we come before the Lord. Sometimes I wonder if God's Church really comes together on Sunday for worship or for a routine "get together?"

I love that! Pray with Holy hands lifted up to God! How awesome is that?!!!

Love ya'll! Strive to be Different when you worship this week!

This world has NOTHING for me....

What do you place above your relationship with Christ? Your job, work, desire for more money, worldly things, relationships..... there are countless things we tend to put above Christ and alot of times don't even realize it!

If there's one thing I've learned since going into the ministry it would have to be living committed to Christ is a choice. I choose to daily put aside my selfish ambition to follow Christ. Not saying that it's easy to do so, but at the end of the day, I constantly strive to let go of all the other things my selfish heart desires, and choose to have faith in Him. Let Him lead me and guide me. I've learned that all those "wants and so called needs" I desired in the past are worthless and full of false happiness.

My relationship with Him and serving the Lord with all my heart is where my true happiness lies!

Paul says in Philippians 3, "Everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I may have Christ and become one with Him."

I pray that you will painfully and truthfully look at your own life..... I say painfully because it is painful to look deep into your own soul and see where your true desires lie. Is your ambition to serve this life or is it to serve the Lord? You can't do both.

Love ya'll! Strive to be Different!

Striving to be Different

So, this is where we found Maggie when we came in this afternoon from the yard. She said that she was taking a bath like "Puffin?" on Max and Ruby.... You'll have to click on the video to watch:)

Growing up I have so many beautiful memories with my mom.

She has always been such a fun mom, always creating and using her imagination.

There has never been a dull moment in my mom's brain! She's always had an idea for making things out of "nothing!"

I remember sitting at the kitchen table on a beautiful summer day making dollar bills out of paper so I could play store. She taught me how to color them and cut them to look exactly like the real ones! So much fun! And I must admit, they did look pretty real! (to a 5 year old anyway:)

I remember her making the best tents out of sheets, stringing them up all over the living room for me to have the best adventures under! Didn't matter if we made a mess, it could be cleaned up later she would say.

I also remember that she wouldn't let the lack of money detour us from having fun either! I remember one summer her making us a slip and slide out of a piece of plastic and a waterhose! (And by the way, she joined in the fun that day too!) We had the biggest slip in slide around and it didn't cost a thing!

All of my friends loved to come to my house to play! And as I think back now, I really think they enjoyed playing with my mom more than me!:)

One of my most cherished memories is my mom standing in the kitchen cooking or canning summer vegetables. She would rise before daybreak to cook homemade biscuits every morning before school and to make sure dad was well fed before he went to work. Then the best part of the day was coming in from school and smelling the aroma of fried chicken sizzling and cornbread baking in the oven! Our family always had dinner at the table together, with a home cooked meal, and blessings offered to the Lord.

Another loving memory I have of my mom is the quality time she spent reading to me. Whether it was old fashioned fairy tales or scripture from the Bible, mom always read to me. She would snuggle up next to me on the couch or in bed and read me stories. They always seemed so magical and alive coming from her voice, I loved hearing her read.

All this said, I guess the best memory I have of my mom growing up is that she's always been such a wonderful, spiritual role model in my life. I always remember her reading her Bible and journaling scripture.... I would crawl up in the bed next to her and sometimes watch as she took notes and read His Word. My friends and I loved to sit with her, talk about scripture and have her explain it's meaning to us. I love her for that. For being such a Godly example for me to follow as well as my friends.

Such sweet memories of my mom growing up. She's always been the sparkle in my life, my confidant, my best friend. There are no secrets between us, nothing I've ever had to hide.

Thank you momma for always loving me unconditionally. For being my biggest supporter and encouraging me to always press on! For raising me in a strong christian household and keeping me grounded in the Lord. Thank you for staying at home and always taking your role as a mother seriously. Thank you for all the fun times as a child and for taking care of me and nurturing me.

In you lies a beautiful sparkle, a genuine love, and a very noble and virtuous woman.

I love you! Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Anniversary

I can remember the night so vividly, like it were yesterday.

It had been an extremely difficult time in my life and I was lying in bed, tears streaming from my eyes. I couldn't figure out where my life had went wrong? I was overcome with depression and sadness... life seemed so hopeless now. I longed for a someone to love me. Not to just "say" that they loved me, but to really love me.

I remember crying out to Jesus that night.

It wasn't your typical talk with the Lord, I hadn't been close with the Lord in a long time, so it was more of a plead with Him to forgive me and to hear my prayer once again. I cried out to Him to send me someone who would love me...for me. I remember pleading with Him to send me a Godly man who loved the Lord and would treat me with great gentleness and respect.

I will always hold that prayer that I said that night, close to my heart, because the Lord heard my cry! He answered my prayer, he wiped away my tears, and gave me the love of my life!

Thank you Britt for the best 11 years of marriage ever! It's so much fun to think back at all the crazy and fun times we've had, and anyone who knows us, knows they were crazy!:)

But, it's also so exciting to see what God has in store for us in the future....together...serving Him.

I love you!
Happy 11th Anniversary!

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God's Way

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways,"

declares the Lord.

Isaiah 55:8

We can never fully understand God's ways for our lives.

Nor could we ever fully comprehend His thoughts

because He is God.

God has a plan for all of us according to His purpose for our lives.

Our job is to trust Him and to be obedient to His call!

Are you fully trusting God and His ways?

Are you pursuing His purpose for your life?

I challenge you to quit trying to figure

it all out this week on your own.

Begin pursuing God's ways for your life and

trust Him to lead you to your purpose.

Then it's up to you to be obedient!

Love ya'll! Strive to be Different!

This is one of my favorite pictures of my mom and me!

Love you momma:)