You Are What You Eat

Daily Bread- graphic from art.com


Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. Isaiah 7:15

Lately I have been out and about in the blogosphere and just about every blog I read has some sort of reference to healthy eating, healthy recipes, and healthy alternative lifestyles. The more I read the more the thought came to me, you are what you eat both naturally and spiritually. Just as eating non-healthy foods can rob your body of essential nutrients and drain you of energy so can eating non-healthy spiritual food. Eating food that is not going to produce those godly fruits of the spirit will be non-producing and eventually purged and cast into the fire ( Matt: 7:19) So what are you eating? What fruit is produced from the nutrients flowing through your veins. What are you feeding your soul? How are you fertilizing the fruits of your soul, and most importantly just as seeds from a fruit can produce another tree or plant, what seeds are you planting for your child/ren's fruit! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree is more than just a literal saying it is a wake-up call for us all to think about what we are putting into our spiritual and natural bodies.

Be Blessed and Stay Encouraged!smfg

Toot Your Horn Today Challenge!!

graphic from art.com

I wanted to take time today and encourage every mother(and father) who reads this blog to reach over and pat yourself on the back! Take a moment and toot your horn ( remember to stay humble! :) for being the wonderful, caring, thoughtful, God loving, God fearing, sacrificing, doctor, judge, nurse, teacher, and any other role you play parent that you are. If you are a single parent you are allowed to give yourself two pats;) !

We as parents don't always take the time out to toot our horns. I mean sure we do when we are reminding our children of what all we do for them, and how grateful they should be for parents like us, but do you actually take the time to give yourself credit for how wonderful you are?

I want to challenge you to take 15 minutes anytime today and just write down your your strengths and accomplishments as a parent and then take another 15 minutes giving God honor and glory for his blessing you with your strengths and accomplishments then make a brief list of parental goals that you would like him to help to accomplish. Lastly and most importantly take another 30 minutes to treat yourself!! Do something for you that is not related to cooking, housekeeping, taking care of the kids, the husbands and or pets or anyone who is not you!!. Do one thing that you have not done in a while, or continue a project that you always put off whatever it may be just do something for yourself!

I will toot my horn and tell you my indulgence later tonight or in tomorrow's post Lord willing, and I would love for you to share yours. Remember the key to raising confident children is to posses confidence yourself, how can you be confident if you don't know what to be confident about. Our heavenly father blesses us to walk and live in his light and as long as we don't exalt ourselves there is nothing wrong with embracing our brightness!

Be Blessed and Stay Encouraged-smfg

If you can't link your blog, then please leave a comment. Let others know how wonderful you are and most importantly spread the word so that others parents can be reminded of thier goodness!

Fathers and Daughters -Filling the Void

I read another one of my good friend Lylah's wonderful posts on mothering and this one really impressed me. Being I have daughters I find myself drawn more and more to blogs and posts that center around raising positive daughters. Her post entitled How God Built Girls is a beautiful sentiment and reminder of how important the roles that fathers play in their daughters lives. I personally am a daddy's girl! I thank God daily for my dad and for the fact that he allowed me to be raised by a true man of God. My dad has also stepped in and accepted the role of father/pa-pa to my daughters and I am eternally grateful that he treats them as princesses and gives them that much needed fatherly attention. I realize that while I am blessed, there may be other mothers out there who unfortunately have no positive male role models for their daughters. Guess what, you do! I live almost 100 miles from my mom and dad so my daughters are not around them daily anymore, but I make sure to show them Godly men in the bible, and I allow them and encourage them to look to God for provision of all their needs. They are little now(8/6) but God has given me his peace and confidence in that as long as I serve him and raise my children in his fear and obedience he will bless me to raise beautiful, pure, productive, and blessed children. As single parents we must cling to that hope, we can not be moved by the fear of the enemy in the statistics and reports of failed single parent homes. Below is an excerpt from Lylah's post.

How God Built Girls.
Family Systems and Dad's Building Blocks God built girls to be loved, nurtured, doted on, cared for and kissed and cuddled a lot. He built little girls to need hugs and tender mom touches. He built little girls to need to hear words like, “I love you my precious, darling princess and I’m so proud of you.”He built little girls to be held on laps, taken for walks, and hear talks about God and how good He is. He built little girls to be protected and provided for (food, shelter, clothes, education). He built little girls to feel cared for and to be spoken gently too. He built little girls to LOVE being a girl!Good Mothering Good mothering gives little girls a needed foundation to love being a girl. God wants moms to provide the secure, nurturing place for her little daughter so she can grow up and feel secure and know that it’s wonderful being FEMALE. You'll know if it's happened because of the sparkle in the eye. (This is my 3rd granddaughter.)Culture tries to make it not so wonderful—but God says it is. Culture has distorted the beautiful image of being a woman. Fashion magazines, TV and things like that give an “impression” that is damaging.If you have daughters, what impression are you giving them? If you have sons how are you modeling being a Biblical woman? In what ways are you modeling respect?-LylahL, The Lylah Blog

You can read the rest of her post here

Be Blessed and Stay Encouraged-smfg