Harvest

I have gotten so behind on posting here. I have so many fun things I want to share. A few tutorials, a recipe I whipped up and most of all, I have a ton of posts about the fun we have been having over here.

The most recent was our churches Harvest Fest. So let's start there.

As always, our church put on an amazing event. When it comes to our kids ministries, our church does not mess around. We have an amazing children's pastor and his team is phenomenal. If you are local and need a church, one where you're kids love to attend, email me. Seriously.

Now that I have shamelessly plugged my church :) Let's look at all the fun we had.

 Rhi's Merida costume was amazing. So many compliments on how cute she was and she just loved being her favorite princess. Sadly, my little swat guy wouldn't hold still for pictures. He was so stinkin' cute though, trust me.

 I just read something on Pinterest saying how being a mom makes you feel like a kid again. So true. I love playing games with them. Getting on the floor and in the action.

The kids loved all of the carnival style games. They even brought home goldfish. Yay! Sadly, Merida the fish only lasted a few days and we had to teach Rhi about Toilet Side funerals.

There are so many other pictures that I would love to share with you but we have our little man in them. It was such a fun night with the kids and our friends.

I'm hoping to get a recap of Rhiannon's party up this week. We will see. Just be prepared for some Princess Painting cuteness.

Rainbows

People, I am one proud mama! My daughter is a rockstar.

Let me give you some background.

A few weeks ago Rhiannon started attending Rainbows at our church. Rainbows is a club for preschoolers, ages 3-5. In Rainbows the littles learn bible stories, do crafts, sing songs and play games, all while earning badges along the way.

Two weeks ago Rhi was sent home with homework and her first verse to memorize. My girl rocked it, by day 2 she could tell you the verse and where it was located. This mommy is horrible at memorizing so when my 3yo was able to memorize even a short verse...impressed!

 So fast forward to last night. Since the kids recited their verses and turned in their homework last week, it was award ceremony last night. Baby girl got her first badge!

The group sang their little song and then got their certificates with badges. I cannot wait to get her little vest to attach her badge to.

Oh and how cute was she singing "Jesus is Alive" ?

Little Christs

A few months ago we were asked to have our picture taken for the church website. The picture is used to represent adults/family at the church. It's pretty fun seeing ourselves up there when we go to pay our tithe or check on upcoming events.

Other than being excited to see our cute family when I go to the website, that picture being there has not changed anything. So I was surprised when a friend made the statement "Man you better be on your best behavior now that you are the face of the church". This through me off. Big time!

It's not that I don't think that we represent the church because we do. If you are a Christian, a follower of Christ, I have news for you, YOU represent the church. YOU represent Christ. An image on a website means nothing. The day I surrendered my life to Jesus and decided to live for Him was the day I should have been told "Man you better be on your best behavior now that you are the face of the church".

Now I don't mean to slam my friend here. In fact we sat and talked all about the statement and how we as Christians (that includes me) seem to forget just how much our behavior affects what non-believers think of Jesus. I mean, how many times do we hear things like "I don't want to go to church, it's full of hypocrites" or "If he/she is what a Christian looks like, I don't want to be one" It is the most common reasoning that I get from friends I try inviting to church.

We should be modeling Christ daily. Our actions or words should show the love of Christ and the walk He wants us to be taking. I remember hearing a while back that the word Christian was originally used as an insult. It meant little Christs. It was used to mock followers of Jesus, unfortunately for the taunters, Christians liked it. It was a compliment to be a little Christ.

That is what we should be striving for. To be a mini version of Jesus. We are called to be like Him. We may fall short. No, we WILL fall short. We are all sinners. We will all make mistakes but the goal should be to be as much like Him as humanly possible.

I will be making a point to be more like Him. I will be doing my best to show His love to everyone I come in contact with. I will be His hands and feet just like I am called to be.

It is not always easy to walk the walk. It is so easy to fall into the ways of the world. To do what those around us are doing. But why can't we make it the norm to be like Jesus? Why can't we make it fun to avoid sin instead of seek it? Why can't we be the majority, following Christ and striving to please Him?

Seriously, why can't we? Let's do it! Let's show the love of Jesus. Let's walk like Him.

What is Beauty Anyway?

The other day my mom text over a few pictures of one of the first beauty pageants I was in. We were comparing just how much my little girl looks like me. Twins!

Anyway, they got me thinking. Thinking about beauty, self-esteem and what God has to say about it all. I was reminded of a message that I gave at a mother-daughter tea a few years ago. I thought I would share that message with you. As women, it is so easy to get caught up in what the world says. I thought this would be a nice little reminder of what He says. (a reminder I often need myself)

Please pardon any references to being here tonight or my examples given for little girls as they were the target. I was going to change all of that for you readers but I didn't want to throw off what I was trying to say.


I grew up in the pageant scene. I was what they call a “beauty queen”. Some of my bigger titles include Little Miss Orange County, Miss Anaheim, Miss Orange County, 4^th runner up for Miss California.

Needless to say I have been around and learned a lot about outer beauty, but I also learned a lot about inner beauty. Tonight I want to share a little about those with you.

Being in those pageants, I saw what the world calls beauty. A certain hair color, a particular body type, a specific style of clothing. A lot of the girls in pageants, as well as in the world end up struggling with how they feel about themselves because they don’t look like that, and because really, it is impossible to look like a girl in a magazine.

A lot of you may struggle with that, a lot of girls and women in this room may think they are ugly. That they could never be pretty. I was fortunate to learn that what we think or say about ourselves means nothing in God’s work, what matters is what God thinks about us.

Can I tell you all a little secret tonight? God thinks you are beautiful.

In Psalms 139:14 David says “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

Listen to what David says here. “I am wonderfully made”, God created everyone of us, and He made us exactly as He wanted us.

God does not make mistakes, He put those freckles on your face for a reason, He gave you that hair color and body shape because He thought they were beautiful. Everyone of us looks different, and God wanted it that way. I think that it is our differences that make us so beautiful.

I want you to look at these flowers with me. Every flower in here is different but equally beautiful in it’s own way. If every single flower in here looked the same, it wouldn’t be quite as pretty. If they were all pink, pink would be boring and no longer unique and beautiful.

We are a lot like that, God gave us certain traits to stand out, and that is what makes us beautiful.

Now, even though we were wonderfully made, and God made us all so beautifully, the Bible tells us that outer beauty is not the most important. More importantly is the beauty that is on the inside.

1 Samuel 16:7 says "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

So even though all the jewelry and fancy clothes are fun, it should not be our focus. Our main focus should be on what we look like on the inside. What our heart looks like.

Next, let’s look at 1 Peter 3:3-4, these verses will explain a little more about what we just read.
1 Peter 3:3-4 “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. 4Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.”

Now that does not mean we should not take care of ourselves and look pretty but that we should focus more on our inner self.

If God cares more about our inner beauty, then we should probably figure out what true inner beauty is, so that we can work on that. When we don’t know exactly what to do or how to be beautiful on the inside, the best thing to do, is to look in our bible, and see what God says.

The best example of inner beauty that I can think of are the fruits of the spirit. These things, tell us exactly what God wants to do.

The fruits of the spirit can be found in Galatians 5:22-23. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control.

When we act in these ways it makes our hearts soft, and our inner beauty shines right through to the outside.

That leads me to the question: How many of you have thought that someone was not so pretty, but you got to know them and they were such a kind and loving person, that they became one of the most beautiful people you know?

Now their looks didn’t change at all but their inner beauty beamed out of them. Isn’t that cool? The way we act can make us so breath-taking. Looking at all of you, I already know you are so so so beautiful, but can you imagine how much more beautiful you are when you act in these ways and your inner beauty shine through? Wow!

Now is it always easy to follow what the fruits of the spirit say to do? NO! It can be really hard. Like when we really want a piece of candy and our mom tells us that we have to wait until after dinner, is is easy to be patient? No way, I have a hard time being patient when it comes to candy but in the end that patience will pay off.

Think about all the work that was put into tonight. How much time you spent thinking of what to wear, how to do your hair, and all the time your teachers and the leaders here put into making this place look beautiful for you. A lot right?

Now God tells us that our inner beauty is more important, so all the time that was put into to the outward appearance, we should put even more time into giving our hearts a makeover.

Can you think of some ways that we can work on our inner beauty, how do we give our hearts that makeover I just mentioned? Like I said earlier, if we ever have questions on what we should or should not do, we can read our bibles. So reading our bibles is a great step in making over our hearts. We can pray for strength, and for God to help us be kind and gentle and loving. As well as the other fruits of the spirit.

Now another make-over step, that is sometimes a little harder, is listening to and obeying our parents.The bible tells us to honor our parents. Moms and dads usually know what is best for us because they watch over us and a lot of times have struggled with the same things, so listening to them is a great way to stay on track and keep our beauty shining through. I mean moms, how beautiful do your little girls look when you walk in and they are cleaning their rooms after you only asked them once?

Everyone in this room has the potential to be a hundred times more beautiful than they already are by simply following after what God’s word tells us.

Like I said earlier, each of us were wonderfully made and our outer beauty was made perfectly by God. We should take care of ourselves and our appearance, but more importantly we should focus on our inner beauty because that is what God looks at and cares about.

I want to challenge you all, to not only work on your own beauty, but to let those around you know how beautiful they are. It is easy to forget how great we really are, so it is nice to hear it from people that we care about. Can everyone here take on that challenge?