Strengths and Weaknesses

Have you ever noticed that the thing you like most about someone is also the same thing that you dislike?
Someone who you admire for getting things done suddenly is seen as a bossy control freak. Nice steady husband all of a sudden is dull and boring. A friend we love because she is caring turns into a friend who is nosy. Strong, command man husband is an overbearing, domineering jerk.

What changed? Two things, I believe. First, our perception can change from time to time.
Second, behaviour changes. Your greatest strengths become your greatest weaknesses. Sometimes I am a leader, and people follow me. When I get into the flesh, I become a bossy bullfrog. Being of strong convictions (good), I can become stubborn.(bad) I can be easy-going (good) but that can turn to lazy (bad) If I am not careful, even those things that I do well, satan can turn. I must be vigilant.
Just a thought

Another BIG favorite

This hymn is a great favorite of mine. Definitely another goosebumper.
I like it best acapella, but I would also like it with Irish-sounding accompaniment.


Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art. Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.


Blessings and Joy,
Rhonda

Complainers

I have several people in my life who are chronic complainers. Its getting so bad that I have a hard time being around them. Isn't that awful? A preacher's wife, not wanting to be around people? A child of God avoiding her Christian siblings? I try different approaches. I try sympathizing. That seems to make it worse, and they start seeking me out to cry on my shoulder. I try to counter their complaints with Scripture, but they only whine more and act like I have no sympathy for them.

Here's what I believe. We've all got problems. We all have big problems. Yours are just as big, bad, sad etc. as mine. They are a part of life that God allows for our good. Complaining shows just how little I trust my Heavenly Father to look after me. As I complain, I am also usually trying to make my suffering just a little worse than yours. And of course, God must be deaf and blind. Can't He see my troubles? doesn't He care?

Some people, IMHO, feel invisible if they are not pitied by one and all for their suffering.

"Count your blessings" may seem like a cliché, but its absolute truth, given by God.
Thankfulness gives health, even thankfulness for less-than-perfect circumstances.
Complaining leads to depression and insomnia and quite a few other unpleasant symptoms, which leads to more complaining! And as dear Flylady says, nobody likes a martyr!

Thank you Lord, for everthing! For loving me even though I am less than perfect. Thank you for my house and van. Thank you for the Preacher and our kids. Thank you for my computer and my broadband connection. Thank you for the nice people who brought me some Dr. Pepper and See's candy! Thank you for my blogsisters.

See how much fun thankfulness is?
R

So I don't like poetry.....

But I do like music and have a tremendous appreciation for certain lyrics. So what's the difference? Why do I shy away from poetry?
I have been thinking about the song lyrics that have influenced me through the years. I can still remember songs from our Church choir from when I was seven. Right now, I am becoming more aquainted with Charles Wesley hymns. Two BIG favorites, "And can it be?" and "Arise, my soul, arise"

Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:Before the throne my surety stands,Before the throne my surety stands,My name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above, for me to intercede;His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:His blood atoned for all our race,His blood atoned for all our race,And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son;His Spirit answers to the blood,His Spirit answers to the blood,And tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:With confidence I now draw nigh,With confidence I now draw nigh,And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry



There are several more verses and I love them all. This song is recorded by the John Marshall Family. I get goosebumps everytime I hear it. The Preacher doesn't even understand all the lyrics, and he gets goosebumps. (The Preacher speaks ESL)

Blessings and Joy,
R

Another If

IF I am afraid to speak the truth, lest I lose affection, or lest the one concerned should say, "You do not understand, " or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness; if I put my own good name before other's highest good, then I know nothing of Cavary's Love

Amy Carmichael

I am not liking blogrolls!

Why, you ask? Well, one of the things I really like about blogging is the interaction, the comments.
Now that I have blogrolls, I think I am saving time by visiting all my blogs in one place, but I've noticed that if I want to leave a comment, I have to go to that blog anyway. So, what is happening is that I am not commenting as much. Not that my opinion means all that, but if I can offer a word of encouragement, then I should. I also crave your comments. If I wanted to journal all by my lonesome, I would have gotten a regular paper journal.

I'm not getting rid of my blogrolls, but I will take the time to say "howdy there" once in a while!

Blessings and Joy,
Rhonda

If, by Amy Carmichael

I am not, by nature, a poem person. A dear friend gave me this book of short poems by Amy Carmichael and they are just right for me! Short and to the point.

IF I can write an unkind letter, speak an unkind word, think an unkind thought without grief and shame, then I know nothing of Calvary's love.

R

Are you an exhorter?

Here in Chile, people think the word "exhort" means to tell somebody off, to berate them, to let them know how horrible they are. This is, of course, not true. My Mom has done two ladies Bible studies on exortation. She defines exhortation as "restoring a Christian to joy"

How dangerous we are with words! I love blogging because I can think about something before I write it. I can also delete something with a few clicks of my mouse. I wish I had more sense with my speech!!!!

I wish I could say that I exhort people. I do not come by it naturally. But thats no excuse. If you don't something naturally, you need to learn to do it. That means just doing it because it is right even if you feel weird at first doing it. Its like smiling when you sing. I grew up singing in Church and my mom always used to say, "Rhonda, SMILE" Of course, I do smile when I sing, always. We are trying to teach the girl who is signing for the singing to smile when she signs. I do it naturally now, but it is learned.

So, I'll learn to exhort, to be an encourager. To lift up and not tear down.
"Let you speech be alway with grace...."

R

Good Husbands Are.....

Hardworking, humble, Christ-like, loving fathers, missions-minded and soul-winners. They are strong, responsible, selfless, and unafraid to drive a minivan! They are trustworthy, they are leaders. They are not wimpy. They are not "sensitive" nor are they "in touch with their feminine side". The good ones do not have a feminine side! LOL

As you know, I started another blog, this one is Spanish, for young ladies. I am trying to offer practical advice on how to determine if a guy is not a loser. There are so many losers out there, even in the Churches. So, I am trying to make a list of the most important traits, those that are absolutely necessary. Looks are actually irrelevant. I've seen some ugly guys whose wives think they are the handsomest.(gag) As Louisa May Alcott wrote "love is a great beautifier"

Here's my order. Besides being a child of God:
1.Hardworking (this is actually responsible, too)
2 Trustworthy (this also takes care of the pornography issue)
3.Evangelistic (a missionary and a soul-winner)


Now about the "humble" and "selfless". Its hard to get "strong" and "humble and selfless"
Those who are strong tend to not have self-esteem issues ; )

What do think the guys would say about this, huh?

R

PS, my husband loves our minivan!

What's the One Thing

Married Ladies! This is a question for you. Besides being a Christian, whats the one thing a man must be in order to be a good husband? What is the one character trait you could not live without?


Of all the things the "world" says, whats soemthing that is not necessary in order to be a good husband?

Thanks Ladies!

R

New Blog!

Well, I finally just jumped in and did it! I started my new Spanish blog for young ladies. Its call Hijas del Rey which means the King's Daughters.

I feel the need to help Christian young ladies. It is not easy being different. It is not easy going against the mainstream.

Once again, if you have any advice for young ladies, let me know! If you have a special courtship story, I'd like to hear it. If any of you grew up in a non-Christian home, and lived to survive, let me know your story!

Thanks,
Rhonda

Being honest

Most Christians I know understand the need for honesty. They all realize how important honesty is, and most of them claim to be honest.

But I wonder what would happen if we could get a glimps of what we really are and what we really do and think. I am not talking about secret sin, I am talking about things we do that we do not realize.
Now here is the kicker. Do I really want to know what I am doing wrong? Am I ready to acknowledge my undesireable behaviour? My answer in a nutshell, NO!!! See? I am being honest! Ha ha!

Lord, help me want to know the truth about myself, awful or otherwise, for it is only then that I can change.

Dealing with Disapointment

How do you deal with disapointment? People we trust to lead us, fail us. People we believe in let us down. Being in the Ministry, we often find out about other pastors who fail in their personal lives to such a degree that they forfeit their ministries and often forfeit their families.
We have been bombarded lately with discouraging news of friends and aquaintances, and I am disapointed. I am so idealistic sometimes. I truly expect those around me to be everything they should be.

Thank you Jesus for being Absolute. You are Perfect and unchanging. Everything you allow in my life is good for me. I trust you. I will not allow myself to be swayed by disapointment. I will continue to pray for my brethren. I will trust you to protect them and keep them from sin. Lord, may I never be a source of disapointment to anyone, for your Name's sake. May your Name be glorified in my life, and speech, and even in my blog. Help me to encourage others to holiness, as I strive for holiness myself. Keep me from self-righteousness and hipocrisy.
I love you Lord.

R

More on the Deaf

I have always had a fascination with sign language. I would always look at books and try to learn ASL.
For the past two years, God has been bringing deaf people and ministers of the Deaf into our lives and our Church. We have been learning the Deaf culture and Chilean sign language. It has been a challenge, and now I am immersed in this ministry! Our goal is to have a deaf Church within our Church, pastored by a Deaf pastor.

This is an urgent ministry because there are religious cults making great overtures to the deaf, offering them the sky if they will convert. We don't offer them the sky, we offer them Heaven, as a gift from the Father, forgiveness of sin, a gift from the Son, and Comfort, a gift from the Holy Spirit.

Pray for us, the Hearing and the Deaf. Pray for Jorge, hearing, who is to be the Teacher. For Sandra, hearing, who interprets the singing. For Marcos, deaf, who in newly saved. For Miguel, deaf, also newly saved. For Ruperto, and Amada, deaf, still unsaved.

For Mauricio, missionary to the deaf, our advisor and teacher, and his co-laborer, Lori Brock.

Please pray that we can do our part to unify sign language here in Chile.
God bless,
Rhonda

Shamefacedness

I have received two special blog blessings this week. Both Susan and Mrs.Blythe featured my blog on theirs. I am honoured by this, but also I am a bit uneasy about this post, seeing that I might have some new visitors who don’t know me yet, and might not take this the way it is intended. I love all my sisters in Christ.

Every once in a while the issue of clothes comes up. There are basically two camps. The Pants Camp and the No Pants Camp. In these camps, there are subdivisions, but basically there are just 2 camps.

Now, I know that this is a highly charged issue. There are many reasons for that, but I will not go into that today, or maybe ever, because I really, really have no desire to argue this topic. If you write something on your blog about this, and I totally disagree, I will not post a comment.

That being said, here are my two cents; )
We all read the same Bible, so we all know what the Bible says about clothing.
1. God wants a difference between men and women in their clothing, per Deut 22:5
2. God wants us to be modest. 1 Tim 2:9

The problem is that we all have different ways of viewing these two directives. OK

But, there is something that most ladies leave out. Shamefacedness. We don’t even know exactly what it means. I didn’t even know what it meant, so I studied it and I believe that shamefacedness is the opposite of sexy. OK. What is sexy? Hee hee! How should I know? Well, I don’t know, but I “know” two gals who do! Here in Chile, while I had cable TV,
I watched BBC’s “What not to wear” hosted by Susannah and Triny. I just loved hearing them trash some poor fashion-deprived woman, glad they weren’t talking to me!!!!!! Anyway, they tell the ladies how to be sexy. They tell them how to wear the pants just right so that their thighs and bottom look good. (this is NOT shamefacedness) They tell them how to unbutton their blouses just so, to show their breasts and bras, just a bit.(This is NOT shamefaceness) How to wear their skirts and trousers so they cup under their fannies and “show off” their bottoms.

Shamefaced to me, means I do not wear anything that clings to the shape of anything private, from my knees to my neck. I avoid “sexy” in my wardrobe.(Do not mistake this for dumpy, I hate dumpy, but we’ll get into that later!)

So here it is,
Feminine
Modest
With shamefacedness

That’s my two cents!

Isn't this great?

I received the coolest compliment last night. We had a visiting pastor yesterday for our anniversary Sunday. After a long, tiring, but special day, we came home and I whipped us up some leftovers. As we ate, our friend said to me, “Your kids seem happy. I’ve know so many PKs and MKs that are so unhappy. Yours seem happy”.

This tells me a lot, because disobedient kids are not happy. Bitter kids arent’t happy (duh)
My kids are happy!!! So, in spite of the Preacher’s and my faults and shortcomings as parents, my kids are happy!

Thank you Lord!

Hurrah for the Fellowship Hall

I am not overly-fond of mega-churches, to put it mildly. So many churches have taken the American entertainment lifestyle and built their churches with it. Worship services are major Broadway style productions. (I wonder just who are they worshipping?) You can get your Starbucks, sit down and see the show. Or you can PLAY. You can drop your kids off for hours! I know this for a fact, because I got to tour a wanna-be megachurch.

So here in Blogland, I have read about several who dislike this and have taken to home churches. Others have a no-social-anything church. I had a dear friend, an older sister in Christ, tell me that having a fellowship hall was the first step towards degradation in the Church. They don’t have fellowship hall, and they won’t eat anything in the Church.

Here’s my two cents. Being missionaries, we are big on evangelism. We love to have new people. When they are saved, they are so happy! And then they go home and realize that now they are alone. They are different from their families and friends. They need new friends, new activities. People to be with that don’t cuss and watch pornography. They need to be around people who read the Bible, just because they want to ! Christians need Christian fellowship.

Here in our little Church in Chile, we are in the process of building a new building. Phase One is the Fellowship hall/mini gym and Sundays School building. We have kids Bible club here. The teens play soccer and basketball, after the Bible studies. There is fun fellowship with other believers that I can only say good things about. Now, Church meetings are the same, same teaching and preaching of the Word. Same music. But during the week, the kids can come and play. This is a good thing.

Some of our friends whom we deeply respect feel that doing what we do is disrespectful to the Temple of God. But its not the Temple. We are the Temple. My body is the Temple!

When you “put off”worldy friendships and activities, you must “put on” godly friends and wholesome activities. If you don’t, there will be an empty space in your life, and you will fill it with who-knows-what.

Hurrah for the Fellowship Hall!

I just don't care!

Do you ever get to the point where you say “I just don’t care”? When you look around, and so much needs to be done, you realize that you’ll never get it all done. Even if I work hard and get a lot done, I’ll still never finish. I think I just had a lightbulb moment! You never get housework done! Now, I can see this fact as horrible, which will do me no good whatsoever, or I can take it as it is, a fact.

A person can handle just about anything, if you know what you have to do. Here I was thinking that just as I was getting the place looking good, it got dirty again. If I can just understand that homekeeping is a constant activity, not a goal. Just like raising kids. You don’t raise them in a single day, or a single training session. We’re in this for the long stretch. And I think I can handle it.

Is being a homekeeper easy? For some, yes. Enjoyable, too. For some, like me, well, let’s just say I am constantly trying to “tweak” my attitude. God bless Flylady!

R

How do I get these kids to listen?

Good Morning, One and All! Hope you had a lovely Sunday, and enjoyed worshipping with God's Family. We had a great day inspite of terrible weather. The weather here is quite a factor, because most people walk to Church. One young lady received Christ as her Saviour last night, so we are satisfied with this week's work.


I have been surprised as I read different blogs, at the idea that good mothers keep their children with them at Church and don't send them to Sunday School. What's wrong with Sunday School?
Well, I 've heard alot. I read about unprepared teachers and problems with other children. I personally loved SS, and I feel that learning Bible stories, especially illustrated ones during childhood, helps the grown-up Bible student learn better. So, what can we do to make our Sunday School better? We must prepare better teachers!

Several years ago, I was given a book called How do I get these kids to listen? by children's evangelist Ed Dunlop. Its published by Sword of the Lord Publishers. It is an interesting book, an easy read. Don't get me wrong, its an easy read, but you learn a lot! We must do our best to reach the children. I personally prefer working with kids rather than adults, because kids have less to un-learn and less emotional baggage.

If you are SS teacher, you'll enjoy this book. If you've ever felt called to teach, you'll enjoy this book. If you aren't a SS teacher, why not? Are you involved in the Lord's work somewhere else? Good! Oh, you're not? Let me encourage you!n Get involved! Help! Serve the Lord!


Have a great day!

R

Saturday night prep for Sunday

To all you lovely people who get to just go to church,I sometimes envy you! For us, Sunday is a workday. Sunday school lessons have been prepared, nursery class curriculum has been passed out to all teachers and workers. Baths are being taken as I type. Sunday dinner is in the crockpot. The Preacher's dress shirts were washed yesterday. Tomorrow I will help Sandra with the sign language singing, so I have Denise to take over on the piano. The Preacher will switch from Construction Foreman to Preacher and Teacher of the Word. What a great title! I am so glad he not just a doctor or a lawyer.

I am praying for Susan and the Friend Day at their Church tomorrow.

My goal for tomorrow is to worship God in spite of all the to-do of church.
Hava a lovely day with your Church, listen to your Preacher, encourage someone.

R

Its 9:15 pm

And my sink is shined! Goodnight Flylady Dear!

Flybaby R

My other apron

Here is the other one! I like this one the best, but I wish it was a wee bit longer.

Blessings to the Prairie Muffins and Hillbilly Housewife and her Apron Evangelism!

R

Another confession

My journey towards being a good housekeeper has been a long one. I was a terrible housekeeper to start with, but I soon realized that something must be done. Of course I had no idea where to start. You know what? I cannot even remember where I heard of Flylady! Anyway, dear Flylady gave me a start and I still receive her emails everyday.
My main problen has been consistency.(That's also been my diet problem, but thats another blog entry) I have been doing so good recently. The Preacher (my DH) loves coming home and seeing that shining sink! But last night was different. The Preacher came home from a hard day of Church-building, just to turn around and go to Prayer-meeting. Then afterward we came home and he wanted to eat. So I made supper and the Preacher had a fun time with the kids. I was tired. I thought, well the place is a mess and the kitchen is a mess, but I'll do it in the morning! So off to bed. This morning the Preacher heads off to the construction site, and I start getting things going here. Then the doorbell rings! It's the Preacher and a lady from the Church who needs to talk. !!!!!!!!! Embarrased, I open the door and let them in. She stays until 11 am. I have thoroughly disgraced the ministry!! (just exagerating awee bit!)
Now, you Born-Organizeds out there, (Candy, you are BO even if you don't think so!)
this is something that never happens to you. But for the Flybabies out there, you know what I mean.

No sense crying over spilt milk, but they say confession is good for the soul...........

humbly,
R