Patience

Have you ever thought you were good at something and then later found out that you weren't?  I usually consider myself a pretty patient individual.  However, the last two days were spent testing and all I could do was walk around the room.  No talking, no reading, no NOTHING!  Days like those are just the most boring.

Since I have finished Ruth, I am now reading in Genesis about Sarah, the wife of Abraham.  In keeping with the theme of this blog, Sarah was not a very patient person.  She had been married to Abraham for a long time and still couldn't have any children.  In that culture, if you couldn't produce any children then it was custom for you to give your husband a maidservant so that she could bear some heirs for you.  The little glitch in this story was that Abraham had already had a vision from the Lord telling him that God was going to give him an heir from his own flesh and blood.  Instead of being patient, they took matters into their own hands.  They decided what was best for them and Sarah gave Hagaar to Abraham so that she could bear him a child.  I'll continue with the story at a later date....

How often are we not patient enough and we take matters into our own hands?  Can't we just wait for the Lord to do what He says He will do?

Lord, help me to be patient.  Teach me how to wait on You and Your will for me instead of taking charge and doing what I want.  I trust that Your timing is best and that You will meet all of my needs.  I need You, Lord.

Humility

After a long day of the wonderful writing STAAR test my kiddo's had to take, I came home and went for a 2.5 mile run with my husband.  We passed by a squashed armadillo and a stinky skunk that were horrible and awfully foul smelling!  Try holding your breath and running...doesn't make for a good thing!  Neither one of us were very hungry after that.  So we sat down on the living room floor and we just talked.  It's so nice to actually spend good, quality time with my husband to sit and listen to what he did during the day and to tell him what I did.  One story I had for him today was about humility.  I had taken about 2 hours to print, cut, write a sweet note, tie with curly-cue string and added a STAAR pencil for my kids taking the test today.  I had 38 of them to write and my gracious husband helped.  (He did say that he was glad I loved them because he sure wouldn't be doing this. Thanks babe!)  I went to school this morning so excited to give them to my kids and I think they were just as excited to get them, until one student goes, "Mrs. Houck, you didn't spell STAAR right!"  My response was, "Oh really?  How did I spell it?"  "You spelled it STARR!"  So I laughed and kept passing them out.  However, I had a few more students point out that I said "you you" instead of "you will".  I just laughed and said, "You know, I always tell you I'm not perfect and here is a great example!"

Humility.  Dictionary.com puts it in terms like these: not proud or arrogant; modest, having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservient, etc.; low in rank, importance, status and so on.  I finished Ruth this morning because it's not a very long book of the bible and I think about her as I write this.  Ruth was a very humble woman.  Boaz was a very humble man.  Not only do we have two obedient people, but we have two humble people as well.  Boaz made sure that his relative knew about all the assets that Naomi had to offer and knew that he could very well take it all.  Ruth was humble towards her mother-in-law and self-sacrificing for her sake.  Since Boaz's close relative didn't or couldn't take upon Naomi and Ruth, he humbly took them in.  In return, because of their obedience, they are in the lineage of Christ!  HOLY STINKIN' COW!  Could you imagine not being obedient to God and because of that disobedience missing out on so much that God has in store for us?

Sometimes, obedience is hard and it takes humility to get there.  To accept that we did something wrong and now we must go and ask forgiveness from whom we wronged.  Even more so, God calls us to be obedient to His will.  We must humble ourselves and give up OUR wants and OUR desires so that God's will is the only thing that shines through.  I know that it is hard for me to go to my husband when I have wronged him.  TO anyone for that matter, but that's where pride comes in.  Maybe that should be a blog for tomorrow!

Lord, teach me how to be humble.  Show me how to live with humility and not with pride.  Teach me obedience and how to walk in it.  Father, I want what you want.  Not my will, but Yours be done.  Thank you, Jesus for showing us what true humility looks like for dying on the cross for our sins.  I am not worthy of it, but I desperately need it.  Thank you!

Obedience

It is way to early on a Saturday morning for me to be awake, but Michael and I are going to head to the Katy area to go to a workshop.  We are going to a class through Lifestyles Unlimited which is a company that educates and mentors people like us who are seeking to invest in real estate.  We want to start buying real estate in the future so that we can create passive income, which simply means income that we get without doing any work.  Long term, we would like to be serving in another country like Japan or China and so doing this will help eliminate us asking for money from people.  We will be able to support ourselves.

With that, I am up because we have to be in Katy around 8.  Not my ideal Saturday morning, but here I am.  We had some company over last night and I was not able to blog, so I thought I would make sure and get that in this morning :)

In reading Ruth this morning and yesterday morning, I have really learned a lot.  Here is the brief outline of what I have read so far.  (Just a side note: I have read this many times before, but it's interesting to re-read this and learn new things)  Naomi had two sons and husband whom all died.  She, unselfishly, in all her anguish told her daughter-in-laws to go back to their hometown because she knew that the future wasn't looking so great for her.  Orpah went back to her hometown, but Ruth clung to her.  It says in Ruth 1: 16-18, "But Ruth replied, 'Don't urge me to leave you/or turn back from you.  Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay.  Your people will be my people and your God my God.  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried.  May the Lord deal with me, be it ever severely, if anything but death separates you and me.'  When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her."  Ruth was obedient to Naomi.  She stuck by her side and was willing to die where Naomi was going to die.  More over, she was willing to worship the TRUE God even though she was a Moabite.  In return, God blesses her.

So they returned to Bethlehem, and caused a big commotion in the town when they arrived.  People couldn't believe what they saw.  Again, Naomi remained obedient to God through this and was determined to do what was right.  She found out that a distant relative, Boaz, had some land there and according to the law in Deuteronomy 25: 1-5 he could be Ruth's "kinsman redeemer".  Two things we see here. 1) God's sovereign hand was upon them throughout all of this in that He brought them back to Bethlehem where David would be born and also fulfilling scripture because Jesus would be born there.  2) Naomi, even in all her hardships, put her daughter-in-law before herself and unselfishly thought of her.  We can relate this back to our Savior in that He unselfishly gave His life for us at no cost and at no price to pay for us.  Just simply a free gift that we have been given.  We also see the obedience from both of these women and how, because of their obedience, God blesses them.  They won't see the full fruit of their labor, but that doesn't matter because they will get that view in eternity.

How much more should I be obedient to my Savior?  Lord, teach me to walk in obedience to You and Your word.  Help me to live like Naomi and Ruth did in that they always were thinking of others first.  I know I am not the best as this, but Lord give me that mindset.  Amen

Today and church last night...

Let's begin with church last night.  It was FANTASTIC!!  I love Woodsedge and I especially love Wednesday night prayer.  The Spirit of God was totally present and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Ben and Ashley sage this song and I love it...it's on my new TOP 10:

I didn't blog last night because we got home and went to bed.  That brings us to today!  I still want to add something that happened yesterday at work.  My friend Jennifer Johnson and I were walking down the hall at school and she says, "It's so bright!" "WAHOOOOO!"  I started laughing because, although it was bright and we weren't used to that, it was really funny.  Normally the hallway lights in our school are only half on so that we save and conserve energy.  Yesterday, they were all on!  Teachers and kids alike were all talkign about it.  It was a big deal.  Super funny :)  Thanks for letting me share Jen!

On another note, God is continuing to show us how to trust Him and how to make the most of it all.  Today is the day that I got the chance to sign my contract, but I will not be signing it.  I have taken a position with another school called Legacy Christian Preparatory Academy.  It is a homeschooling co-op where kids come to school on Monday and Wednesday and then Tuesday and Thursday they are home-schooled.  It is a bitter-sweet time for me because I have had some of the most fun, challenging, exciting, hard, and just plain good times at my school.  I have lots of friends whom have watched me go from college and student teaching to being a professional.  I have built many relationships with parents, teachers, and co-workers.  I also know that there is a time for everything and a season for everything and my season at Williams is up.  I have worked there 5 years (almost 6 counting student teaching) and we are just at a place where God is leading us to something different.  I will miss it greatly, but trust that God is good and He will take care of us.   Looking forward to some exciting times at Legacy, though, as well!  I really enjoy the atmosphere there and I can't wait be to apart of their family.  

Michael and I also know that we are moving into a place where we would like to start a family in God's timing and when we do have children I will be staying at home.  I have dreamed about this for many years and I am excited about the future.  

In my quiet time, I started reading the book of Ruth.  I want to do a study on the woman of the Bible as my friend Megan is.  She inspired me!  It has been good and very interesting.  Culture, back in the day, if a woman was left widowed and without children then a near relative was responsible for taking her in, bearing her children, giving them the deceased husbands name, and reclaiming their land.  Michael and I worked through what that would look like if her were to die (sounds morbid, but I promise we were just talking through it).  Michael asked me, "So why do you think that God had that law?"  In response I said, "I would guess so that God could show us His grace and love for us in taking care of us, as well as, to show His sovereign power.  I'll get into that more as I go through the book of, but just ponder on that for tonight.  God's good and perfect will.  He knows best.  He will take care of all of our needs.  Trust in Him.

Psalm 146

I was feeling kind of down this morning when I got up to do my quiet time.  I usually get up at 5:00 and spend an hour with the Lord, but this morning I didn't get up on time.  So, I didn't have my usual routine and that bothers me.  As I was journaling to the Lord I asked Him to help me not be so hard on myself as well as to be more disciplined in getting out of bed when the alarm goes off the first time.  I have also just finished up 1 Chronicles and I didn't feel like I got a whole lot from reading through it.  Overall, I was just feeling bummed.  So I asked God to just speak to me and I sat quietly listening.  He told me to read Psalm 146.  Here is what it says:

Psalm 146- "Hallelujah!  My soul, praise the Lord.  I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing to the Lord as I live.  Do not trust in nobles, in man, who cannot save.  When his breath leaves him, he returns to the ground; on that day his plans die.  Happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, the maker of heaven and earth, the sea and everything in them.  He remains forever, executing justice for the exploited and giving food to the hungry.  The Lord frees prisoners.  The Lord opens the eyes of the blind.  The Lord raises up those who are oppressed.  The Lord loves the righteous.  The Lord protects foreigners and helps the fatherless and the widow, but He frustrates the ways of the wicked.  The Lord reigns forever; Zion, your God reigns for all generations.  Hallelujah!"

After I finished reading this, I was incredibly encouraged.  I was amazed at how God just spoke clearly through that verse to again tell me to trust in Him and Him alone!  I read that verse to Michael and shared with him what God spoke to me about and he just laughed.  He said, "Did I tell you that I just read that verse 2 days ago?"  "Umm...no, I don't think so," was my reply.  He shared with me how God had used that verse to show him to trust Him more as well.

I am amazed at how God is at work in our lives all the time!  He may not always reveal His plan to us fully or when we think we need it, but He does have all things planned out and He reveals it in His timing.  A key verse that has been apart of our relationship is Romans 8:28 which says, "God works all things together for the good of those who love Him and who are called according to His purpose."  I have to trust that since I have been called that God is going to work all things for my good.  It doesn't always say they will be perfect, but He does promise that it will be for my good.

Thank you Father for knowing what is good in my life and for revealing it to me at Your perfect time!

Sweet Poem

I came home tonight and wanted to come up with something new for dinner tonight.  I have all these great ideas to cook, but we would need other ingredients and I just didn't want to stop at the store.  For example, I want to cook paleo sushi, pizza, and spaghetti...so look for those in the near future!  What I found was paleo chicken fingers fingers and to go with that I found twice baked paleo-tots.  I have some before and after pictures for you!  Before I did that, though I worked out.  I did my best set of thrusters yet!  65!!  My arms are like chicken arms now!

Ok, so here is dinner...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

On another note, I have one more thing to share for tonight.  Michael and I have a little chalkboards from our wedding that we have laying around our house.  Most of the time we keep scriptures on them, but the one in the kitchen we write little notes to each other just to encourage one another.  I came home tonight to this!  

Funny, isn't it!  The really funny part is that it is completely true that he doesn't have any armpit hair!  Yes, that's right!  (As a side note, I have his fully permission to blog about this!)  A few weeks ago, Michael had really been smelly!  I mean not your normal guy smelling kind of smell, but SMELLY!  Nothing was working!  What do you do when you can't figure it out?  GOOGLE it!  We found many things and tried different things.  One of those happened to be shaving your armpits.  He is the kind of guy that will try and do almost anything and so he did.  It was really kind of funny and we can laugh about it now.  I have to say, it didn't help.  What did help though is that Michael stopped stressing out.  Like I have said before we have both been trying to focus more on trusting God than in ourselves or earthly things.  He was really stressed out about money and providing for our future.  Our ultimate goal is that when we have kids, for me to stay home.  In order for me to do that he would need to support us fully and that just isn't happening right now.  BUT, God is good and He knows what's best for us!  We have been really blessed with money and are definitely doing good when it comes to finances.  Michael really just wants to be doing the his job of providing.  

This post is really long, so I am going to blog about Psalm 146 later on!  

Power of Prayer

God is good!  Can I get an AMEN?  It's sort of hard to do that through a blog, but I am sure if you are reading this, you Amened with me :)  

Michael sent me this from Zig Ziglar today.  We have been really seeking God and asking for help with trusting Him.  I don't think it's a coincidence that he got this email today.  I read this as God saying, "Trust Me!"   

March 19, 2012 

Monday Psalm 118:6 
You, Lord, are for me, so I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? 

Tuesday 
Psalm 118:7 
Yes, You, Lord are for me; You will help me. I will look in triumph at those who hate me. 

Wednesday 
Psalm 118:8 
It is better to trust You, Lord, than to put confidence in people. 

Thursday 
Psalm 118:9 
It is better to trust You, Lord, than to put confidence in princes. 

Friday 
Psalm 118:10 
Though hostile nations surrounded me, I destroyed them all in Your name, Lord. 

This was at the bottom of the email:

Zingers

by Croft M. Pentz 

If you would attain greatness, think no little thoughts. 

Faith does not pray for bushels of blessings and then carry a pint measure to receive them.

Faith can never overdraw its account. 

Faith never looks to circumstances, but trods onward with its steadfast gaze on Christ. 

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved. 

This is exactly what we need!  We need to stop saying we are going to trust God to take care of us, and just simply do it!  God is a big God and He knows what's best for us.  As long as we are focused on God and we seek Him and do our part in diligence, then God is going to take care of us.  Isn't that exciting?

I have been reading this book called The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian.  Amazing book, but it is taking me forever to read because it is so deep!  I read this quote in there this morning that says, "Love is diminished if we dwell on the negatives.  Love grows if we focus on the positives."  Isn't that a great quote?  I want to be a wife that has God's heart for my husband and one that is uplifting and encouraging.  I don't want to be a "Debbie Downer" or a "Negative Nelly".  I want to be a wife, co-worker, friend, teacher, sister, daughter, etc. that builds people up instead of tears them down.  

Today, I was actually impressed at my students and how they jumped right back into a normal school day after having a week off for spring break.  We are in the final days before STAAR writing and this week is one of my most favorite weeks of teaching.  I do a Writing Camp and I try my hardest to cultivate an environment like camp.  The kids enjoy this as well and they get to work together on almost everything they do this week.  I am writing about my classroom to ask you to pray for them and that God would give them wisdom, knowledge, and the ability to retain that knowledge for the test next week.  It is one of our greatest honors as a teacher to pray for our students.  I am not always the best at this, but I do know that I have seen God work in ways that I never thought possible for those students that require some EG!  My good friend and mentor in life, Marcina, calls those people EGR's  or extra grace required! We all have people in our lives like this!  

Onto tonight...I came home and Michael and I jumped right into our workout!  Man, am I sore!  It was a great workout, but I am super sore.  Then, I cooked some delicious dinner.  Yes, I cooked again!  I am so excited!  Well, I do have to confess that we had leftover chicken because I had cooked too much the other night.  However, I did cook the cabbage that went along with our chicken and then the best part was our dessert!  I made the BEST PALEO CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!  Thank you Baker Gal!  These are the best cookies I have had so far on the paleo diet and I can't really tell a huge difference from regular chocolate chip cookies.  They were great!  

 

Thank you Jesus for such a great day!  I am blessed!

God is good!

Last night, Michael and I went over to hang out with Keely (Michael's mom).  We had a date night with her since Pops (Michael's dad) wasn't home.  They spent most of spring break week with Kalese and Ryan down in McAllen so we missed them!

I cooked some yummy Almond Encrusted Tilapia.  I was very proud of myself because I made this without using any almond flour.  Or at least purchased "normal" almond flour.  What I did was took some almonds and ground those with the Ninja!  And voila!  Homemade almond flour!  It wasn't quite the same, but it sure did taste good and turned out just fine.  We also had cauliflower mashed potatoes with some brussel sprouts.  Then I made some gluten free brownies!  It was quite nice to spend the evening with Mom and to make a good, healthy meal.  Thank you bloggers for posting recipes so our family can enjoy them too!

As I was cooking dinner, I was reading my friend Megan's blog and really felt encouraged.  Megan and her husband, Avery, pray before they go to bed.  So, as we went to bed last night Michael and I prayed with each other.  We often like to pray for things that are on our hearts as well as listen to anything that the Lord has to say.  Last night was a very sweet and intimate time with the Lord.  As we listened to the Lord, He spoke to us both and said, "Trust me!"  "I am in control and I want you to trust me!"  Isn't God good!  He knows us so much and knows that we have been challenged lately with some decisions that are not so easy financially in terms of what the world says.  We have both been praying that we can just release that and put feet to our faith.  We say we trust God, but do we really?  And if we do, then what does that look like?  How do you live life like that?

Then this morning was a great morning.  Since we spent the night at the big Houck house, we decided to have house church and spend some family time worshiping together.  (We were also going to see the new Lorax movie at 10:45 before Pops had to go to work...great movie by the way!)  So Kalen led us in some worship songs and then Pops read a scripture from Ephesians.  Ephesians 4: 26-27 says "Be angry and do not sin.  Don't let the sun go down on your anger and don't give the Devil an opportunity."  He told us a story of how he and Mom had a little communication error the day before and expressed how he had left frustrated and upset that he had hurt Mom, but not angry at her.  You see, the difference is that he was frustrated and angry, but he wasn't angry towards her.  Then he went on to tell us how, as soon as he got home, he sat down with Mom and talked through their communication error and apologized for their mis-communication.  I really enjoyed this time with our family this morning.  It wasn't long after that, that Michael and I were able to put what Pops talked about into practice.

Michael and I had a communication error that we quickly resolved once the movie was over.

Thank you Jesus for sweet family, friends, and a wonderful husband who loves me all the time!

Walking for Steve

This morning Michael and I went out block walking for Steve Toth who is running for House District 15.  It was a beautiful morning to go out walking and Katie, Steve's daughter, joined us as well.  Katie and I stopped at several houses and were always greeted with warm smiles and encouraging words.  Most folks were actually willing to talk and then listen to what we had to say!  I was blown away at the genuinness of the people.  We stopped at this older gentleman's house who had been a pastor for 64 years, married for 60 years, and had just turned 80 years old!  Incredible!  Katie turned to me and said, "Can you imagine being married to someone for that long?"  I don't think I actually gave her a response, but YES!  I can imagine being married to someone for that long.  I know that we will go through struggles and hard times, but at the same time I had so much respect for this gentleman for staying married.  I want to look back over our years and have young people, like us, look back and say what I was saying about this man. 

This morning also reminds me of a dream I have of becoming a counselor.  And maybe it won't come true....maybe God has a different plan.  BUT, I have realized over the last few years of my life that we all have problems, issues, or struggles in life and therefore they want to talk about them.  They want someone to listen to them.  They want to be able to be heard and voice their feelings.  I want to be the one to listen to people.  I enjoy hearing their stories and then in turn praying for them. 

On Monday, Michael and I went to the rodeo with some friends and on the way home we took the light rail.  There was a lady on the light rail that we sat next to and we were able to just hear her story.  She was very open to telling us and we could hear her heart for her family whom she had been separated from for a long time.  It seems as though she just needed to have someone listen to her.  We got the chance to pray for her as well and that was cool.

Thank you Jesus for all the wonderful opportunities to share Your love with others this week.  I am blessed!

Paleo Goodness

So when Michael and I got married, we decided that we were going to eat the lifestyle called Paleo.  This just means that we eat healthy things like chicken, vegetables, some fish, fruit, and things like that.  Nothing processed, no dairy, and gluten free.  It has been a slight change for us both, but a good one!  We don't live by this rule 100% of the time.  We try to live 90/10 which is where we eat good for 90% of the time and 10% of the time we can eat whatever we want.  I enjoy it, but it't sometimes hard to cook good meals that I enjoy and give some variety.  So last night, I cooked a delicious meal that I wanted to share.  For dinner I steamed some brussel sprouts and then I fried chicken!  Oh yeah...that's exactly what I did!  Here is the link to the recipe I used.  Paleo Fried Chicken  Then for dessert, I headed over here for the Paleo Brownies.  They were super delicious and super good.  You have the option to put egg in it to make it more moist, but I like brownies more chewy!  They were delicious!  We also went over to my old roommates from college to see their new precious addition Eli, and shared our brownies.  They enjoyed them as well!  Let me know if you try them out :)

First Blog

I have decided after much debate, that I am going to start a blog!  I want to be able to share our life, the good and not so good, with family, friends, and anyone out there.  God is a big God and we want to do life with people.  I hope by sharing our life with others that they will draw nearer to Jesus.

Michael and I got married on October 23rd, 2011.  Our lives have been very fast paced and on the go since the day we met.  We both are very much work-a-holics.  Although this is a very good thing, it can also get in the way of relationships.  So in December we decided to get away from civilization and go camping!  This was such a great experience!  We had so much fun just being out in nature together, alone with God, and sleeping through a horrible thunderstorm.  (My mom-in-law tried to warn us both, but we turned off our phones :)  We discussed what our life long goals were and we also came up with a life verse for our family.  It is John 15:1-8.

It goes like this:
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper.  Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.  Remain in Me, and I in you.  Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me  I am the vine; you are the b ranches.  The one who remains in Me and I in Him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.  If anyone does not remain in Me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers.  They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you.  My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples."

We have chosen this verse because we want to be the branches that produce much fruit.  We want to glorify Him in all that we do.

I encourage you to live life like this and journey together with us as we seek Him.