This telephone line is never down :)

Hello All! Well... I am back! lol..finally! It has been a while. We are now on Ch.6- "A Positive Mom is a Praying Mom". I know that we hear this alot... "Pray". And I think because its one of those things that sometimes gets put on the back burner unless we are extremely happy or extremely sad, that we dont realize how much prayer is needed and helpful. Karol stresses the fact that it is oh so important that we pray for our children (and also for ourselves that we will raise them right :) ) I know that God already has a plan for each of us, but we dont know what that plan is. We should pray that our children will have the wisdom and strength to do whats right and that God will show them the way that they should go. God is SOOOOOOO POWERFUL. He can do anything. But his will WILL always be done, and we must except that fact as well. He always answers prayers. Sometimes it is yes but sometimes it is 'not now', 'no', or 'you dont need that'. By praying we must put our full trust in God that he will see our children through the good times and the bad. When they might be a few months old, when they are teenagers, and when they are adults. We can even pray when they are babies for when they will become adults in the future. It is that important! Karol gives three important reason for why we should pray.
1.) "We pray because God tells us to bring all our requests to him." - The Lord already knows what we might want or need but that does not give us an excuse to not pray. James 4:2(the end of verse 2)- "You do not have because you do not ask God."
2.) "We pray because we need wisdom from above to be good mothers"- There is no way we could do this job by ourselves. I know the times that I get overly busy I tend to try and rely more on myself and think about myself more than I do God, and it bites me in the rear-end every time!
3.) "We pray because it turns our eyes toward God and off our problems." By asking for God's help we are telling him "hey!, I trust you and I know that you can do this!" For the past few weeks I have been overburdened with a few things. Everyday I have to just stop and pray. I give all of my cares to Lord and after I pray I dont even let myself think about them. Sometimes it is very hard, because I just want to worry worry worry. But every time I pray I except the things that I cannot change and leave it to the Lord because I know he is the only one that can. It has taken time, and should I say practice :), for me to stop worrying so much but I must admit I feel so much free-er and like a weight has literally been lifted off my shoulders. Prayer WORKS. All you have to do is literally... believe that God knows what he is doing and let him handle it.

Mark 11:24- "Therefor I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Challenge for you: If you dont already have a daily prayer time, make one! I like to pray while a drive in the mornings. Pick a time for you and God, it doesn't always have to be the same time everyday, our schedules change! But just make time for God and you. See what happens :)

Follow Up

Well it has been much more than a week since my last post! Life got busy as usual! But hopefully many of yall took up the challenge and did a week of 'smiling more! If you did I hope that you got some positive feedback or noticed how it gave you or somebody around you a better attitude and joyful feeling during the day. Since I am just going to do this post as a follow up I will tell you what I call my shining moment of smiling week. -- I had gone to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and unfortunately I had to go inside the store instead of going through the drive-thru. Of course there were a couple of people in front of me, who they were I have no idea. But anyways!.. One of the ladies was being rather rude to the pharmacist, and although she had a reason to be a little upset, it was nothing that the pharmacist could control or change. I felt really bad because the pharmacists was trying to be very polite, but it was obvious she was ready for that lady to take her medicine and go, and that it was not the first incident like that that had happened during the day. So as soon as I got up to the counter I smiled as big as I could (without looking like a maniac lol) and at first she looked taken- a -back and then she smiled back and looked relieved. And that is my story of success for the week. Not exactly heroic or anything, but I felt rewarded to have hopefully made her day better. I sincerely hope that you were able to visually see if your smiling helped someone you came into contact with, but sometimes we dont always get to. Keep it up! You eventually will if you havnt yet! I will be posting a much more interesting post in the next few days lol but until then, Orevwa!

Smiling always gets you farther faster than frowning ever will.

Show those pearly whites!

Hello again! We are now at Chapter 5! This chapter is also pretty straight forward. I am going to talk a little about it, but am going to present it more as a challenge and would love some feedback from anyone that tries it out!
SMILING...That is what this chapter is all about! First question: Have you ever been told that your prettier when you smile? I have! And not just from my mom lol. Naturally I am a smiley person. I can usually find joy in just about anything but not always! I can get very frustrated when things go wrong or dont turn out as I planned. Sometimes we dont notice that we are putting out the persona that something is very wrong, we are mad or we are frustrated. We are so focused on what is wrong we dont realize that hey! people are really looking at me! This happened to me one day at work. We were very busy and I wasnt feeling well. Just kinda that 'blah' mood. -Im sure you know what I am tlaking about :) - anyways!.. All of the sudden a co-worker looked at me and said "you know your prettier when you smile." And it really struck me that hey! Why dont I smile? Sure I was having a rough day but that shouldn't have stopped me from being my normal welcoming self. And honestly, who wants to wear a look that makes them look bad? Second question: Do you know anyone that seems to be continually smiling?? My brother is definitely one of those people! And I have other people tell me this as well. He is usually in a very good mood and ALWAYS has a smile to give away.
We dont always have to have a specific REASON to smile. I have had so many people ask me.. why do you smile all the time? And really.. there is not always a specific reason! Quite frankly I find smiling more enjoyable then having a blank face or a frown! As Karol says "I'm not suggesting that we wear a fake smile 100 percent of every day for the rest of our lives." Sometimes smiles are not always appropriate and this is okay. But if you are not in one of these situations where it is not a good time for a smile, then smile! When you have cooked dinner for your husband, family, kids and you are exhausted and really just want to put on that 'oh my goodness I'm tired so feel sorry for me look', SMILE! You just might be surprised at the reaction you get. When you wake up SMILE at everyone you see that morning.

Here is our challenge! I am going to do it as well and post what happens!
For the next week SMILE! At every opportunity you get. Think of a smile as something to give away! A gift! I know that I love the way I feel when I am able to give someone a special gift. Not only will giving away a smile make the other person joyful it will give you pleasure as well. And keep it up! Not just for this week. You might just find it becomes a habit that people continually comment on :)
Smiling tips:
1. Think of a smile as a gift you are giving away! You are giving someone something to brighten their day. This should make you happy!
2. Smile not only with your mouth but with your EYES! If you dont have joy in your eyes people will know your faking!!
3. Smile at strangers! Ex. The lady checking you out at the grocery store, the attendent selling tickets at the movie theatre. We have contact with more people than we think, and we can influence them more than we will ever know!
4. Remember, if you are acting out in a bad mood you will probably put others in a bad mood as well and it only makes things seem worse. So if you have no other reason at all to smile, do it so there wont be anyone else to put you in a bad mood as well!
5. Even if someone acts like they dont appreciate a smile from you dont let it stop you. Think of how you would make them feel it you had a frown on your face. Keep smiling, if only for yourself!

So good luck this week and I hope to see a few comments about what happens because you are smiling more!! :)

Remember... if nothing else we have the JOY of the LORD with us! And that is MORE than enough to give us a reason to smile :)
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18- "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."