Step ONE

Wallpaper down! And yes, the flowers still on the wall are handpainted, not wallpaper, which is good and bad. Since they are somewhat dimensional I have to sand over them before I can paint the wall. Who would think that a small bathroom with only some of the walls papered it would take over 3 hours to peel, wet, scrape, wipe off wallpaper! It was on there good!

Disappointed

I am so forgetful! I left my Bible and my Study Book at Amy's. I even read some of the chapters for this weeks study, but I really don't feel like I can comment on them without re-reading and having the book here with me. I'm very bummed. And who wants to be without their Bible for 2 weeks? I am planning to read up on everyone's study notes and hopefully not get too far behind without my book here. I did think about getting a copy of the book from the library...may have to see about that. So anyway...no notes from me this time.

Weekend fun.

I had a wonderful weekend in Fargo. We got to eat at Erbert and Gerbert's and a new place for me....Hu Hot. Both were excellent. We went to the street fair on Friday. We ate lots of good food and enjoyed looking at all the unique art stuff.
And on Saturday we went to a church in Moorhead. We then went to the park for a picnic. It was sprinkling a bit so we (well mostly Amy) weren't sure if we should even have the picnic, but we did, until a spider crawled on Amy so we were out of there. I had to eat my fruit at Amy's place.
After having our afternoon nap we headed out to the play. We went to Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. I have to say it was AMAZING! If you can go....GO!
Here we are waiting for it to start. We sat on the ground.


This is a photo of the stage before the Play started.And after the show.
Pictures were not allowed during the show and I was SO tempted to take some pictures. Oh my!

And....I bought paint for the bathroom! I made a decision on what I want. I did get some towels too. I'm excited to get started. I hope the old wallpaper comes off easy. I'll post before and after pictures.

Is it true?

When you are stressed, pressured, or a bit frazzled that the real you comes out?
You know...those situations that kinda get you out of sorts...Is that the real you?
Please tell me what you think!

What Happens When Women Walk in Faith
Chapter 3 God has a Plan

To me this chapter was alot about the previous chapter. What it said to me was to have that Faith in God that you can believe that HE DOES have a plan for your life. Alot of times, I've wondered...what is this life about anyway? What is my purpose? Can God even use me?
Lysa shared her experience with her writing a book only to find out that it wasn't good enough.

"I had tried to force the dream to come true with my own formula, and if failed miserably."

Oh my goodness, how many times do we do that? And so many times I think that we "think" God is leading us, but really we've gone off on our own way. How incredibly important is it that we Daily are in touch with God and let go of self. It's just too easy to go off on our own way....sadly without even realizing it sometimes.

She writes "God's plan was perfect and when I left my plans behind, God let me participate in His."

It can be hard to understand God's plan. I know for myself as I pray and pray about my daughter and how she wants to find the right guy. I feel like I'm constantly looking for that guy for her. I NEED to let God work out His plan. After all, wouldn't you want God to find a mate for your child?? My daughter is trusting God with this more than I am and I think I just realized that. It's hard. Waiting...having that Faith that He will give her the dream she is asking for. Lisa just needs to remember that. A reward in letting God do his will in our lives is not only the outcome of it, but the walk through it.....growing and looking back to see what He really did! Amazing.

And of course one of my favorite verses: (It wasn't in the chapter but it speaks to me)

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Bible Verse!!

OH MY GOODNESS! Do you see the verse in my "bit of wisdom" box today???

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Hebrews 11:6

I just read that verse last night when I reading through Hebrews 11 for our study, and I thought about it...but I don't think I took it seriously! It's even underlined in my Bible from a different time I read it. God is most defiantly saying something to me today. How cool is that? :)

"Lisa,without Faith it is impossible to please God........."

What Happens When Women Walk in Faith
Chapter 2: A line in the Sand

I first read this chapter sitting by the River on Sunday. Interesting that Lysa shared that "We must leave our past behind, draw a line in the sand, and determine to proceed forward with God."
This chapter talked about leaving. "Leave the attitude, leave the stubborn pride, leave the right to be right, leave the control, and biggest of all, leave the unbelief." Wow! I guess to be fully serving God one must first put behind the yucky stuff(and leave it there!). And I'm thinking that is an everyday thing for me! I hate the yucky stuff! I don't want it in my life...so why do I everyday carry it??? I may have the line drawn...but have I stepped over it? It's my desire to do His will, but I get so caught up in the yucky stuff of this life. Something else, I think I don't have the faith that I need. When I read in Hebrews 11 about the many people that God worked with and the faith they had, wow, I need to step it up a bit!! I will...with God!! :)
Some of my favorite and marked verses in the Bible were shared in the study part of this chapter.

Isaiah 43:16-19

"This is what the LORD says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,

who drew out the chariots and horses,
the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:

"Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland."

Philippians 3:12-14
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."

Here's a picture I took on Sunday at the River with my book and the sand.

And this........
is what I need to pursue to have more of!

Here's Mom with her trophy from the Pickup Pull yesterday. She actually did not drive her pickup in the Pull because somebody else wanted to drive it. They took 2nd Place. They had a deal...Mom gets the trophy, he takes the money! Mom thinks she isn't pulling anymore. I don't think she should quit yet. And here's the girls again. I babysat on Wednesday and of course we had to decorate cookies. I had these star cookies in the freezer so we made 4th of July stars.


Sierra full of stickers!

Adorable Maci

Notes on Chapter One: The Map

What Happens When Women Walk In Faith Study

The first lines in this chapter.."I felt so insignificant. So small." Wow. That's me. That's how I feel. How in this world can a Big God use me...so small and insignificant. So many days I feel like I do not have what it takes. I'm just Lisa. BUT. God CAN use me! "God doesn't call the qualified, but He qualifies those He calls."
And this......"I do know you have this book in your hands for a reason. God has a plan for you." I like this because I stumbled upon Lelia's blog. I don't have a clue who she is, but I found her and she's studying this book and I feel like I need to study along, so here I am. Also, I am not sure what my "dream" is either. Maybe this book will get me to a better understanding of what God has in His plan for me. I do know that I want to be BOLD for Him and because of Him! I do need to surrender to Him so that He will be allowed to work out His plan in my life.
Hebrews 10:35-36 "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised."

I'm In! I bought this book and am going to do the study along with other bloggers. I'm excited, and hoping to learn just what I need too! Will post later about the first chapter.

Here's some stuff from a blog I found last night:
This is from http://leliachealey.blogspot.com
I just found her blog and I have to say it is very encouraging. She and other bloggers read and studied the book
I missed the whole study...but I've gone through and read a bit about the study here are some notes from the last chapter: these words are from Lelia's blog...........

"Lysa wraps the book up by telling us that if we choose to live a life of radical obedience to whatever God asks of us then we will be living a life that is...

ADVENTUROUS
NOT A WASTE
WORRY-FREE FOR OUR FUTURE
NOT WORN OUT
SEEING OTHERS THROUGH GOD'S EYES
BLESSED WITH AN ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE
and last but not least we will live a life that is
CHANGING THE WORLD!
Now what woman in her right mind doesn't want that kind of life?

This book has really been a life changer for me.

My Grandparents own a Garbage company. They have two huge trucks and about 3,000 customers. Everyday Monday through Friday the crew picks up the trash that people don't want. People leave bags of junk out at the curb and our guys pick it up, throw it in the truck and run the blades. The blades crush the garbage so they can make room for more garbage. When the hopper is full, they drive to the dump and empty their trucks so the next day they can collect more trash.

What if my Grandpa decided he didn't want his sons to dump the garbage out of their trucks? What if he decided that he wanted them to keep everything they collected? If he did this, he wouldn't have a successful company because he wouldn't have room enough to haul every one's trash. He can't have it both ways. He can't tell his customers that he will haul their garbage for them and then keep it. To run a successful business he has to let my uncles dispose of the garbage at the landfill.

Same thing with us.

We cannot be a woman walking God while we are having an affair. We can't pray for our friends then get on the phone and mask our gossip as a prayer request.

Bottom line is that we can't be the garbage hauler and collector at the same time. We either dump the garbage and live for Jesus or keep the garbage and live a life full of confusion, danger and missing out on the plans God has for us."

Interesting to me that today is garbage day here in Fessenden....I forgot to put the garbage out. Hmmm.
And this..........SEEING OTHERS THROUGH GOD'S EYES is defiantly something that I need to work on this week!!!

New Signature

I'm excited! I figured out how to add a signature to my posts. Like I said in an earlier post, I'm working on changing things up a bit. Oh to be excited about trivial things!
But...I have been reading some AWESOME blogs and am planning on posting about them soon.