I pray for my family, friends, daily decisions, and the example I set to show others and encourage others. I pray and search for guidance to a strong person relationship with God and also for my family to have the same. I pray at the center of our family for a strong focus and faith in God. I read this post on http://kirkcameron.com/praying-lords-prayer-marriage/ and just really felt the need to share it. I hope others enjoy it as much as I did. I enjoy his posts regularly. It's constant focus on family and relationships with God and each other and they are very wise and encouraging pieces I feel. 

Praying the Lord’s Prayer for Your Marriage

By Darlene Schacht at Time-Warp Wife | January 31, 2015 

It was about ten years ago. I was sitting in the basement with a couple of friends, huddled around our desktop computer. If memory serves me right, they had stopped by to get a little help with setting up their own blog and to taste my borscht. Blogs I knew, but ask me anything else about the computer and I had to call the kids in for help. You know how it goes…

It was around 5:30 pm. That I remember because we had just finished eating dinner together before we went down stairs. Laughing and chatting and clicking away, we kept ourselves busy until something stopped us dead in our tracks.

It was my 12-year old son.

“Thanks for the wonderful meal, Mom!” He hollered down from the kitchen.

Spinning around in her chair, my friend gasped, “What decade are we in?”

And with that we broke out in laughter.

Obviously this was a foreign concept to them, but to us it was an everyday thing.

I remember specifically training my children to thank me after each and every meal. “Bring your dishes to the sink, and thank the person who cooked it.” That was our rule whether they were at home or away.

And not just a simple, “Thanks,” either. I wanted them to pause for a moment and express a little more than one word. I’ll admit it felt silly at times asking someone else to stop and thank me, but it’s my job as their teacher to lead them in truth.

[Read the rest of the article at Time-Warp Wife.]

New Year and New Experiences Already!!!

   Just as the new year arrived we found out we were ready to go and able to start searching for our first home!!! I want to share this new journey that myself and my family are on right now.  It is the first new event of the year for us. We are shopping for our first home purchase! I have to say it is an ever changing, petrifying, emotional roller coaster. The upside is I know when all of this is done, complete, and we have found our perfect little home for our family it will all be worth it. Then I can go in and paint my own walls, hang my own pictures, and put up my own decorations. Let me tell you that is when the diy projects and blogs are going to start happening like crazy! I am so exited to share the journey with people too and all of the experiences of purchasing your first home just so that when you do it or if you have already done it you can share and relate to the experiences. Also, use it as some sort of comfort when you go to purchase your first home if you have yet to. There are days with a lot of stress and low moments and then the happy and well accomplished days with much progress made. 

   The next special event tha presented itself in the new year is finding out we are expecting our second little one! Wow... A new little family member, a new home in the works, and so much change all at once!

   I am searching a lot for guidance and calm. For peace and the ability to trust through every challenge. I fall short so often and it amazes me because I see proof every moment of every day that God His hands on our lives yet I second guess and put myself through the questioning and the attempts to take control! 

   One example, I was stressed about finances and felt things just we not looking up and I drove to grab a meal to split with my sister and when we got to the window someone before us had paid for our meal. I'm now really familiar either the pay it forward concept and think it is a special and yet such a simple way to impact a persons day. It made me break down in tears! It was to me an immediate sign He was in control and was going to work everything out if we just trusted. 

   So I simply wanted to just share these thoughts and hope that my ramblings encourage someone else today. 

   I'm thankful I know that I'm not alone, I'm thankful my family is not alone, and I'm so thankful that there is a higher purpose and loving arm around us to step us through every day. 

Lots of Love,

~~Momma Mia 

Gods Little Blessings

   There have been a lot of changes in my surrounding friends and family's lives lately and through it all both happy and sad prayer is the thing that is the foundation!  

   There are prayers of need and sadness for lost mommy's with little ones, husbands, parents, siblings, and friends left here to pick up pieces and really connect them in a totally different way... For lost baby's before a mom could ever see them open their eyes, for family and friends and sudden tragedys. 

   There are also prayers of thankfulness for blessings of all kinds: safe travels, new baby's, clean bills of health, new milestones in life, close relationships with Christ no matter if newly found or just stronger than ever.

  This may seem confusing to some, but based on some of the things we have experienced lately I am at this second to the point of tears just from feeling overwhelmingly blessed, grateful, honored that my son can call for me and find me. That he can say Mommy and not have to keep looking with no knowledge his mommy went to Heaven and will no longer be able to love and care for him on this earth. I pray for a long and healthy life in which I can pester and harrass my family to the very last because though I know I'm going to Heaven and I'm blessed to have that opportunity I also love my little piece of Heaven God has granted me on this earth. 

   Prayer is the very first and yet also the final place your heart and lips go to cry and to rejoice! He is our beginning and end and He is our full unending support on earth. I just feel incredibly blessed and am reminded daily even more so really by the minute at some times how very blessed I am to have His love and through His love to have an amazing and faithful family and close knit group of friends to move through life with.

Dear Lord,

   Thank you for your gifts of love unchanging and for my beautiful blessing of a family and extended family through friends. Please always allow me to work more every day to shine and honor you! Please let me work to never take for granted my blessings on this earth and in Heaven. Amen 

   Thank you as always for stopping by and taking the time to share in my posts, thoughts, life, mommy moments, and projects. 

~~ Love Momma Mia

A Gift You Cannot Buy

   In the past year I have stumbled across and thoroughly enjoy now regularly following Kirk Cameron's Facebook and blog posts. It's wonderfully encouraging to see families thriving in Christ and not changing their values for anyone. 

   I always feel blessed by these articles and I wanted to share. 

   How can you give the gift of Gods word to your children? A gift you cannot buy...

http://kirkcameron.com/gift-buy/

Complete Surrender - I Surrender All

   This is more of a reflective and light bulb type of moment for me than my normals posts on my blog about crafts, my sweet little boy, and my family moments. This is a growing moment for me spiritually. 

   My family, like every family, has various situations that we struggle with from time to time, but lately there has been an echoing phrase that keeps coming to us in so many ways and I needed to share... "The strongest position you can be in is complete surrender". 

   This past Thursday a complete stranger by all aspects, but yet an instantly dear and precious support team said this to me and I noted it immediately as it is so true. 

   As I shared this talk with my parents my mom had tears well up in her eyes because just the day prior a sweet aquantance, but someone she really just came to know said the same to her, but related to a different current trial. 

   Over the last week my family and I have been brought into the path of strangers, friends, and family members saying this phrase to us word for word and some with different wording, but identical meaning...

   I was told "The strongest position you can be in is complete surrender" sounds like an oxymoron and they knew this, but it truly is the strongest place to be in your life because then God is in total control and he is guiding you. He is completely guiding you on a path that is of his intent. 

   I'm thankful for this truth, thankful for my wonderful family who are my dearest friends and supporters and I am thankful for the complete strangers as well that God puts in our paths as wonderful new friends and loud/clear constant reminders to us all that this place we are in right now is again as follows... "The strongest position you can be in is complete surrender".

   Where I am at now may be a turning point in my profession, but it is definitely a turning point in my faith and hopefully my ability to remember that God is in control ALWAYS. When we feel we have lost our handle on the wheel and are swirling out of control He IS steering us more accurately towards His plan for us than ever before. 

   I just wanted to share how these words keep coming up and from people totally unrelated to each other as clear reminders from God of how we should be viewing our trials and that we need to not be upsetting ourselves due to the lack of control, but instead excited to know God has control always and that is far better than our ability to handle any and all situations anyway. So in these moments of fear instead have faith and remember "This is the strongest place you can be in", pray, be at peace, and walk in the way He is leading you. 

   Though I know it seems silly because it is a prayer said for my audience without any of you actually being a part at the time I say it I still need to and just know when you read it I did pray this for my family and all of you. God Bless. Lots of Love From Mia :)

Dear Lord,

   I prayer you be with each and every one of us experiencing trials and moments of total confusion as to where our path is taking us next. I pray you allow us all to have the strength and peace to know that "The strongest position we can be in is complete surrender". Please give us the ability to walk as you are leading us and to know the steps you want us to take so that we are fully living Your plan for us and not our own. Please forgive our constant need to take control and help us let go so that we may rise to new levels of faith and success in our relationships with You. Bless and protect us all dear Lord and please put peace in our hearts as we go through these times of total blindness as to where we will end up. May we all know and realize though that this is exactly where we want to be and continue to be to reach our full potential for God and as examples and caretakers for our loved ones. Thank You for your many blessings and constant patience! 

Amen

"The strongest position you can be in is complete surrender"

   Thanks so much for reading this and being a part of my blog, but most importantly for taking this message to others as I hope it impacts and uplifts you all as it has me and my family. 

Changing Times

   Things are ever changing as we all know and often now people say the changes are so rapid you can miss them with a blink. Many say things have taken an extreme turn for the worst. I'm not a fan of thinking that way even though I see many of their points for this argument. 

   This reality and the economies down turn have only made many of us stand more steadfast than before! Teaching us to fight for our families and our rights, be passionate and vocal about the things we love and believe, adapt to slowed economic growth and change by simply approaching things in a more frugal and conscious manner. These moments and times cause the passionate flame our country is built on to burn more deeply and shine more brightly. We come together and we grow stronger in times like these and we will do so again as the passion is splashed all over our media from all sides concerned it is clear these times are yet again causing us to rally for unimaginable success against the obstacles we may face! 

   My opinion on the changes happening in our country is that it simply causes us all to reach deeply into our hearts and souls and be what we are known for being which is a people that breaks barriers and adapts successfully when it's a necessity! We are a people of determination, strong and unwavering faith, and a beautiful spirit determined to be free and prosperous! We are a nation that offers fulfillment of dreams and freedoms beyond imagination for so many! Times like these make us grow just as times that are difficult in marriages, friendships, and relationships of all scopes and sizes grow upon dealing with and succeeding together through adversity! Despite all challenges and bad seeds attempting to break us we will still succeed and still see days of success, economic growth, and prosperity in every way soon enough. We are a people that defines that outcome and we will do it again!