Movie Review: Paul Apostle of Christ

I knew going into this movie that I had to be in the right mind set for this one.  It's a drama, but one that came highly recommended by my pastor, who is also my bible study leader. 

Dramatic movies can be hard to watch sometimes. This particular movie has come through my house a couple of times and I've passed on watching it, until now. I put it back on my dvd queue and it sat in my house for weeks before I was ready to watch it.  And, I am very glad I did.

If you have a chance to watch it, make sure to watch the behind the scenes stuff, the creators of the movie explain how they filled in much of the information in the film.  Here is one part of that.

I had to keep telling myself that Jim Caviezel was playing Luke through the whole movie, because I always see him as playing Jesus in The Passion of the Christ.

The actor that portrayed Paul, James Faulkner, is an amazing actor.  He has been in a lot of period pieces.  He's your classic English Shakespearean actor.

Unlike a lot of Christian based movies the acting was fantastic in this one.  There were a lot of known actors who used their craft to show this story in a beautiful way.  I laughed a little and cried a little.  I empathized with the characters as well.  As with all movies I watch I wanted to come away with something from it that I hadn't thought or learned before and also be in an emotional state that felt like I didn't waste the last couple of hours of my time.  This one rang true on all accounts for me.

I highly recommend watching it, but be in the right state of mind first.  Sometimes movies like these don't hit you the way they should if you heart and mind aren't open.

Until next time....
1 Corinthians 1:18 
Christ Crucified Is God’s Power and Wisdom

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Lent 2019 #40acts 10-18

Yup, I'm still behind in my blogging again.  I've managed to keep up with the acts themselves, reading them at least.  I've had some family medical/sickness stuff come up on top of my normal schedule and I feel sometimes it's the evil one's way of pushing me down when I am trying to push outward.

God is great all the time, all the time God is great.



Act 10: Drop Everything   This one was about giving things away. We have a couple of bags of stuff that we give away every couple of weeks.  It seems we are constantly cleaning out and getting rid of stuff. 

Act 11: Hidden Heroes    I often think of the trash collectors or facilities management people who clean the bathrooms. I'm glad we have them, can you imagine the world without people who clean up after you?  As a stay at home mom and wife I know what it feels like sometimes to not be appreciated in this aspect.

Act 12: Prayer Circle   Praying for your neighbors can be difficult when you don't really know them.  This is an act I didn't do but plan on trying to do weekly.  It's a realization that even if you don't know someone you can pray for them.

Act 13: Needs Must   Taking care of a chore that isn't yours.  Hmmm.  This one is a tough one for me since it's my daily job to take care of the house.  So for me this is one that is a one off for me.  I try to put my kids clothes away from time to time after I do the laundry, or I gather the trash, which is typically my son's chore.

Act 14: The Green One   We try to recycle when we can, in all honesty it's more to save money than to save the earth.  I know how bag plastic is for the world but I also know how much easier it is with it.  So, I have been trying to go without the added plastic bags from the store as much as usual.  We also tend to use them a few times a week for various things and they get destroyed after that second use.

Act 15: Leg Up    I don't really have a teaching skill.  I think lately the only thing I can share is how to make food.  I've been doing this with my oldest niece in an effort to help integrate her with a healthier lifestyle.  Eating healthy isn't always easy and it takes a lot of preparation.

Act 16:  Dirty Hands  Again, being a stay at home mom means constantly cleaning. So, with this act in mind I just kept things in sight when I went out.  If there was trash lying around I picked it up and threw it away.  If there was something out of place, I put it back.

Act 17: Mission Accomplished  We support several missionary people financially. This year when there came an opportunity for special prayer for one of them I jumped at it.  Normally I wouldn't do this because it takes commitment, which is something that is difficult for me with my schedule and temperament.  I've been finding that it's a way for me to connect more with them, even though I'm not talking or emailing, I am engaged with them spiritually and I find that refreshing.

Act 18: Brothers and Sisters    This Act is all about praying and caring for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ.  The ministry that our family supports is Voice of the Martyrs.  I wrote about them here a couple of years ago.  This type of thing is something I share with my kids all the time.  When they complain about going to church or something like that I share stories with them of persecuted Christians in the world today.  It's a humbling thought for all of us.


I'm still managing to follow along with each day's act.  I like that they engage me in a way I wouldn't normally see the world and cause action when I can.  I gotta tell you though, I was super irritated yesterday when I went to several stores and I couldn't seem to go out of my way to engage like I usually do.  There were shopping carts in various places and instead of taking care of them like I have been I just left them there.  I think it agitated me more to do that.  I got a good night sleep last night and I am looking forward to a reset today.  Sometimes we have to give ourselves grace and forgiveness before we do so for others.  Thank God that He is gracious.

Lent 2019 #40acts 1-9 What I've seen & learned so far

I'm a little behind on my blogging lately.  But, I wanted to give you an update on what's been going on in my life for the first leg of 40acts.

As usual, I notice that I am not able to do most of the acts, but the nice thing is that it opens my eyes to those around me and makes me think of ways to be generous in a way I normally might not be when I am self absorbed.  Selfishness is one of the main areas in which most of us have an issue. We live in a sin nature world, where it's all about us, but in fact we are supposed to live like it's all about others, like Jesus did.  This is hard and I think that it's kind of meant to be so that we can understand what it truly means to give of yourself, to be selfless and how it can change your whole outlook and spirit.

Act 1: The first day of Lent after I read the devotional, it made me aware of my surroundings.  When I went to the store I returned a couple of stray carts into the store.  Maybe that's not a huge thing, but for me, it's a pet peeve.  Why can't people return their carts to the store or the cart holder?  Instead of thinking that, I thought "Why don't I just return these carts to their proper place?" and it also made me think "Maybe these people had an issue returning their cart due to disability or lateness."

Act 2: People watch. Remove everyday distractions so you can see other people. I keep an eye out for things I can do or people to smile at.

Act 3: Period Poverty.  I knew this was a thing in 3rd world countries and I figured among the homeless but I never thought that this would be an issue around here.  Once I learned more about it online I realized that there are definitely lower income people who would have an issue with this.  I haven't decided what to do about this one yet personally, it's still hanging in the back of my mind.

Act 4: Cash Stash.  Start keeping a small amount of money to give help out.  My hubby and I already do this, we have things we give to monthly and we have a budget for Misc giving.  It works out so we usually have some money in there for when we see a small need.

Act 5: Bless the Boss.  I don't really have a boss. Except God that is.  I am a stay at home mom.  So I was thinking about what else I could do to bless the boss.  They did give options of other bosses in your life.  Instead I made a commitment to try to give my first minutes I had to myself to God.  This is a tough one for me.  I have very little time to do what I want, but I know this is important for my relationship with Him.

Act 6: Chocolate Tuesday.  I didn't take part in this one. I won't buy chocolate because the ingredients make me cringe they are so bad.  I skipped this one.

Act 7:  Joyful Joyful.  Bring joy to someone else.  This made me think of putting my kid's clean clothes away for that day.  I was doing laundry and usually I make them be responsible and put them away.  Today I took that responsibility and gave them a little more joy by doing it for them.  Funny story, during the month of my 13 year old son's birthday I deliberately put all his clean clothes away for the entire month.  He actually came to me and asked why I was doing it and exclaimed that I was taking away his responsibility to do it and that he needed that reminder to be more responsible.  He was like "if you do it all the time I'm never gonna learn that it's something I need to do all the time".  It was funny and sweet.  I told him it was a personal birthday gift from me and he said ok but then told me to get back to making him do it soon.

Act 8: Bring Life.  All about giving blood.  I have always wanted to give blood because not only can it be life saving but I am actually o-.  Unfortunately, they can't get enough blood out of me for regular blood draws, never mind the amount they need for giving blood.  My veins are very deep, little and roll a lot.  So, instead my thought was a few times a year perhaps I can just give money to our American Red Cross.

Act 9: Be Present.  THIS WAS THE BIG ONE for me.  I am usually present with my family members when they need me to be.  But, I often am not present with strangers.  The morning I read this act was the day I had to go to my doctors for a check up.  As I sat down among the few people waiting an older man was chatting for another woman across the way from him.  It was obvious that they didn't know each other.  They were making small talk.  I sat down and was checking my phone and emails and there was a lull in their conversation.  It was then that it dawned on me that I wasn't being present, so I made eye contact with the older man and put my phone away.  We had the most incredible conversation.  You see, I'm an introvert.  I prefer my solitude, I thrive on it most of the time.  But, this man was obviously opposite me.  He was waiting for his wife and he was saying how they just celebrated their 65th anniversary.  I shared how my husband and I just celebrated our 14th and congratulated him.  We chatted about the weather and he mentioned about a huge snow storm recently.  I asked if it was out west. He said he wasn't sure but he was familiar with the Midwest since he was from Iowa originally.  I said, corn country!  And he went on to tell me that he quit school at 13 to help with the farm and how hard work it was to plow the fields with horse and plow and picking corn by hand all day long.  He mentioned he joined the military at 18, I asked him which branch-it was the Air Force.  I added that my dad was in the Air Force.  He said he had traveled to over 44 countries in his lifetime.  I asked where he was stationed.  Apparently he worked on the crew that worked for the president so he got to fly all over the world with various presidents.  One time he was to Africa as part of the safari adventure that the president took.  That led into a conversation about how different parts of the world are so very different from our own.  He shared about going to Vietnam and seeing all the mud huts they would make to live in and how the conditions were.  I told him that I knew of people that still lived like that in various parts of the world.  At that point I was called in for my appointment.  I wished him and his wife a good day and lunch and walked away with a little more pep in my step.  That interaction would have never happened if I had continued on my phone and not engaged that older man.  It brought me a sense of joy to get to know him a little and hear his stories. I hope and pray that it helped him in that way as well.


Lately the song below has brought me so much joy that I wanted to share it with you.  I will write again about Acts 10-18 soon

God bless!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Why do you celebrate this day?

Well those of you who know me well, know I love Ireland. Why you might ask?  Well I can't really put my finger on how it began. I always felt drawn to the Isle of Green. In 2003 I went alone on a bus tour of Ireland for 10 days. It was one of the best decisions I could have made. Most people were saying I was crazy or courageous to go on my own without anyone else I knew.  But I made a lot of acquaintances over there with the others that were on the bus tour.  What I think I liked about the tour itself was that I didn't have to choose once I was there, it was laid out before me when I picked the package I did.  Most of the people on the tour were in there 50s or older, which made it a lot of fun to talk with them.

When I saw those lush green rolling hills , Cliffs of Moher and the Megalithic tombs I felt at home. It was this feeling of peace I have only felt a few times in my life.  It's a strange feeling but comforting.

I had my first "real" Guiness in Ireland on the first night we were there and it was delicious. Of course, it has since ruined it a bit for me here in the states.  You see, over there they don't have to put preservatives in their beer but they do here in the states, and yes it does make a significant difference in taste.

The Cliffs of Moher are magnificent. You've probably seen way better pictures of them online, in movies or in photos taken since 2003. My camera wasn't digital back then, It's amazing how far cameras have come since then. It was a bit foggy that day, but for most of the time we were there it didn't rain. Our tour guide said that was very unusual.  Hence all the green.
http://www.cliffsofmoher.ie/




My favorite thing was the tour of the Knowth Megalithic tomb site. You wanna learn more, check out this link. It was super cool inside the tomb but we weren't supposed to take pictures since it was still being excavated and worked on by a team of archaeologists.(This is the type of work I had wanted to do when I graduated high school)
http://www.knowth.com/knowth.htm


Why did I share this with you, it's one of my favorite memories when I was single. It'll be a part of me for my lifetime and hopefully you'll check it out more.  See if maybe your soul has a bit of the Emerald Isle in it.

Most people just celebrate St Patrick's Day so they can drink and eat and be merry.  

For me it's a little more touching to my heart.

And Yes, I did kiss the Blarney Stone.

Wanna learn more about St. Patrick's Day, check out the video below. It also has some other cool history links.
http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day/history-of-st-patricks-day


I left a piece of my heart in Ireland when I left, I hope the Leprechauns take care of it for me.

Lent, Mardi Gras & Other reflections

I'm a bit behind in my writing this winter.  I've been having a rough winter with sickness and such, so I am caring for myself, which is difficult not to feel guilty about.  But, we need to be kind to ourselves so we can love on others.

Here are few posts from the past couple of years regarding Lent, Mardi Gras and a few other reflections in those regards to help get you ready for the upcoming season leading into my heart's favorite holiday.

2017 Posts:
Lent Has Begun , What's Different This Year
1 Week Into Lent, Has Anything Changed?
Lent, We are halfway there..... Have I seen growth yet?
Lent, Good Friday & Easter! How is your Heart doing?

2018 Posts:
Mardi Gras(Fat Tuesday), Shrove Tuesday & Carnival
Ash Wednesday, Lent & Valentine's Day
Lenten Season Pondering - 2018 #40acts40 Acts Wrap Up 2018

I look forward to writing about Lent & 40acts again this year.

I encourage you to join me in this and see how things go for you.

Show Hope - An Adoption Non Profit Organization

I'm not the kind of person who would ever think about adopting a child.  Not for lack of compassion or love, I just never felt either called to do it either due to my personality or the fact that I always felt that God had given our family all it could handle in the children department.

That being said, I've always had a heart for other people and their desire to adopt.  Whether it be a desire to complete their family or that they felt called to love on others in this way.

Around the time that I started to get to know my husband, I also started hearing about Show Hope, Steven Curtis Chapman(the musician) and his wife created a charity for people desiring to adopt but who needed help in various ways.

Due to the fact that there is so much red tape and money involved in adopting, this organization seemed like a perfect place to start supporting others in their love.

The tagline on their Your Part page states:  

NO ONE CAN DO EVERYTHING, BUT EVERYONE CAN DO SOMETHING.

I love this statement because it makes me feel like I can contribute.  Often times when I read about a charitable organization it's more about the need for money or things, and that's true of most everything in this world. 

Check out their website :  https://showhope.org/

Before we donated we prayed about it.  We also made sure we could budget it.  Check out my post here about budgeting before you donate.

When I think of adoption I think of the love the father has for us, that we can be called his sons and daughters, children of God.  When I explained adoption to my kids for the first time, this paints a clear picture of the love that others have for adopting.  How much love God has for us that he adopts us into his family.

My kids will often ask at a young age if a specific person is family or not.  I will explain to them that the definition of family is an interesting one, there are blood relatives and then there are those that we love like blood relatives, or even more so, that are considered family.  Truly love is the source of family after all. 

This is a great organization that I encourage you to read about and support in any way you can. Whether it be in prayer or financially.  

Whether or not you are called to adopt or not, we are all called to care for those who are orphaned.

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.



Ephesians 1:5  
In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will

Hillsong United "Child of God" Who You Say I Am

Steven Curtis Chapman When Love Takes You In

October Ramblings...Are your leaves only half changed?

We have a tree in our yard that usually turns a beautiful red in the fall. This year, the leaves on one half of the tree have changed and the other half hasn't yet. And, they aren't as brilliantly colored as they have been in past years.  It reminds me of me sometimes.

When I came back to the church it took me a long time to recommit myself to Christ.  What do I mean?  Well, I had made a statement that I belonged to Him but I wasn't living for Him.  What did that look like?  I went to church, I attended a small group bible study and I had a passionate prayer life.  But, I still struggled with BIG sin issues. I didn't change my habits on the outside.  I still drank- a lot, I still struggled with sexual sin, I swore a lot, I basically did what I wanted and only felt a little bad about it. It was at a "Revival" type of event that God showed me that I had one foot on either side of a chasm and I needed to choose which side to be on.  I made the leap that day. I would like to say that it was an immediate change, it wasn't.  In fact, it took a couple more months for me to realize that I was still looking back to the other side of the chasm and even then change wasn't immediate, it took hard work to get there.

Change is hard!

I was and still am the type of person who likes to "stick it to the man".  In this case, I was fighting hard against giving up what I considered "freedoms" and moving to what God calls us to do. I eventually made small choices that helped with the big things in my life, all with the help and grace of God and my new Christian friends.  That meant giving up a lot of my old habits, which included a lot of my old friends.  It sucked, it really did.  I felt like I was giving up a part of myself.  And I was, because in order to take up our cross daily we have to die to self and become a new creation in Him.  It meant losing relationships I had from childhood or at least a big change in them.

Where are you at in your journey?

I encourage you today to take stock of where you are in your life, with your faith. In fact, I will be encouraging you to do so frequently this month, at least I hope to.

Look inside and see where you are.  This is something I think we need to do daily, and I try most of the time.  Lately I have to remember that His Grace is Enough.  When daily life gets to you, when it seems like you are in a holding pattern or sometimes slipping down a slope, remember that He is throwing you a rope, but you have to grab it and do some of the work.  There will be some days that will feel like you are slipping down that rope and getting rope burn, other will feel like you are just hanging on for dear life, still others will feel like you are drifting. Then there are days that burdens feel lighter and because of that it feels like you don't have to pull that hard to make progress, it just happens.  In the end just know that he is always holding that rope and he is cheering us on like a parent who loves His children and wants what is best for them.

Happy October.  Here is gets cooler and the leaves change, things look a bit brighter when the sun comes out and the air smells crisper.

Do what you need to do to get back on the right track.  It isn't always easy, but in the end, it gives you Hope.   Do you have hope?

2 Corinthians 12:6-10

Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.