Sharing Our Gifts

Many times when one would read a title such as that, one would think of getting a gift of money or a present.  I am talking about sharing ourselves, our talents and our time.  Some of those things require a bit of our money, but usually not giving directly to any one person a monetary amount.

Throughout the time I have spent as a parent, I've tried instilling in my kids that we need to give of ourselves, even in the smallest of ways, to help in any way we can. Many times in the beginning, I've just taken my kids with me in whichever service project we were doing and expected them to help, or I gave them things to do like wiping tables, serving drinks or something like that.  As they grew in their own walk and personal likes and dislikes, they've shown that they love helping, but in their own ways.

It has been a humbling experience for me to lend my voice to the Sherwood Baptist Choir.  I am truly stretched and challenged with my own musical abilities, along with my deafness that brings additional challenges all it's own to just about everything I do.  I have always been a soprano, but due to a 3 month long bout of a variety of colds and flu a few years ago, I went from a soprano to an alto.  This is a challenge when I've learned a vast majority of songs in soprano, so much of my work has been to relearn all these songs.  It helps to stand next to some strong alto voices in choir so I don't start singing the soprano part.  The video below has been written by our Music Minister and Choir/Orchestra director Mark Willard.  He is the main vocalist with some very talented folks accompanying and singing with him.  This song is called "Hope is Rising."  From my understanding, we will be having a *Live* worship on October 9th featuring this song as well as many other favorite classic hymns.  This has been hard work for me in this time also since I've had bronchitis since 2 weeks after my knee surgery in July.  I'm excited to be a part of this, to just simply lend my voice to the choir in praise to God.  What a blessing!

This is another video to show the choir, orchestra, and a very talented and beautiful lady who is singing "I Am."




I count it a privilege to lend my voice in a very small way to the choir wherever I am planted.  Praise God!


This is what I've learned:

*When you model serving and encourage them to help and find some place to share their gifts and abilities, be prepared for when they do something unexpected.

Each of my kids have a wonderful singing voice.  As a part of their music training, they've been in the choir with me until our move to Georgia.  I've given them a choice of whether or not to join the choir and express themselves that way, but they've gone other directions.  My daughter loves working with the kids and that's the direction she's going.  My youngest son is working in security and he's enjoying that.  My oldest son is looking in to the golf cart ministry and I'm sure he'll find a niche there.

*Be prepared for them to tell you, "Mom, I'm not interested in that any more.  That's your interest."

Yup!  I heard it and it crushed my heart because they've all got beautiful voices.

*Be prepared to watch them shine in their chosen place of serving.

The happiness is unlike any other.  They're beginning to learn what it means to serve in an area where God may be leading them.


Other areas of service are available if we just keep our eyes out and ask God to show them to us.  What do I mean?  I've been told I have gifts in the kitchen.  For me, though, I just love to bake and bless people with yummy things from my kitchen.  Couple that with including children to help chop things, cleaning up, and serving those things and you have a family that serves.  This is a love of my own and I'm encouraging my kids to help me, even as they get older.  They each may have had their own special part of what is presented, but they know it is something they've helped to produce.

What are we producing this week?

All kinds of pumpkin bread done in Pampered Chef bread tubes to serve when company comes.  I have a lot of pumpkin to use.  :)

I'm gradually gathering zucchini to shred and freeze for future things like cakes, breads, and things like that.

What are we going to do in the future?  We're going to keep our eyes out for ways we can serve others with our gifts.

Remember, no gift is too menial or minor when it is done in the service of your God!

God Bless,

A New Job for Mr. G

Monday, February 1st, began unlike any other Monday here in southern Georgia since our move here the end of August.  My Mr. G secured a job that is unlike anything he's ever done "for pay."

Prefacing for a bit, my hubby has a sweatshirt that says, "Mr. Fixit" on it from years ago, probably 20 years would be my best guess.  He's always been tinkering, always making something do on the tractors so we didn't ever have to get a new one, always fixing things himself no matter what the issue--unless he knew it was beyond his realm of ability to do it--whether time constraints or realizing he had limitations to what he could do.  There have been times when he had to rely on plumbers and other fix it guys to come in and take care of those kinds of things, but all in all, he's pretty  much done it all on his own--with a little help from a couple Jr. Mr. Fixits in training.  ;)

In years past, he has worked in the human resources dept of the belly of a navy ship, in a ship yard too, in a paint store, for a power company as a lineman, in a pool store installing pools, pool filters, working in the store itself, and in corrections.  Now, with his experience as a "Mr. Fixit", the Lord has seen fit to tailor make a job just for my Mr. G.  He is now installing and changing filters in a variety of commercial settings.  He has his own company truck, ipad, phone and so forth which is something he is getting use to.

Back to Monday--it started bright and early for me.  I wanted to be sure he had a proper lunch and breakfast because neither of us knew what to expect, so I got up before he did and made sure it was all ready to go.  We could have breakfast and prayer together before he left for his day of work.  What a blessing that time was for both of us in the morning before he left for work!  We were able to talk just a wee bit, pray together about our days' concerns, have coffee and enjoy some peace before our days began.

My days have gone like this--after Mr. G leaves, write scripture verse of the day, read Bible and pray, get kids moving on chores, breakfast, laundry (whoever has laundry that day) and school moving.  After they're off and running on their school work, I exercise, work on my daily chores, and getting other things done.   Then we break for lunch, laugh and be silly together, work on anything Daddy needs them to do, then it is either back to school work, free time, working on some project in the house or exercising for them.  If it is their day to make dinner, they usually start by 3PM.

This week has been a week of growth for all of us.  It seems to have been very busy with lots of things to do every day.  Inevitably, I've come down with a cold.  I'm treating with lots of Thieves and RC oils and diffusing Raven and Lavender too.  It started on Wednesday with a runny nose.  Then it went from there.  I haven't been coughing, oddly enough, but I do feel the thickening in my throat.  I've been putting alternately Thieves and RC on my throat and it is helping.  I put Thieves on my feet last night too when in nights previous I'd put Purification.  We'll see how long this one lasts.  I'm hoping it won't last long, though.  My days have had an added nap in for a bit--even just 20 minutes--with sickness, just to help me feel better.  I'm hoping Mr. G doesn't get it.  Whew!

Why a new job for Mr. G if he's retired from the state of PA?  Isn't his retirement enough to live on?  Yes, it is, but our ultimate goal is to be debt free.  Right now our house in PA hasn't sold (please add that to your prayer list), we have a very small mortgage here in GA that we'd like to pay off in 5 years vs the 10 year loan we have with the bank.  Plus we have some student loans to continue to pay on.  So, as you can see, we're working on decreasing the debt with this move, but need the job for paying 2 mortgages, utilities and upkeep on 2 properties 900 miles apart.  Eventually the house in PA will sell and we can hit the student loans and house payment "double time" and get them paid off quickly.  We're hoping to "owe no man anything but love." in 5 years.  With God's grace and His blessing, we will accomplish the goal of living debt free.

We hope to be able to bless others, help our children get established in their own homes when those times come and in whichever direction they feel God leading them in their lives.  We also hope to be able to go see family more often.  The fact that we haven't done that really bothers me, so with lots of prayer and work at being more frugal, by the grace of God, we'll be debt free, hopefully in 5 years.

If anyone has any questions about how we're doing this, please take a look at The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.  We've implemented many of the principals in this plan.  I would encourage you to take a look and let me know what you think!

God Bless,