The Future of this Christian

First off, God's blessings are more then material. If you haven't figured that out you might as well choose to do anything you please, without regard for God at all. Not al christians are rich, not all are living with a just fine income, som are poor, and depending where you look for them, very poor, some even dirt poor, but God still blesses His people, and it doens't have to be money He blesses with either. To expect God isn't blessing if theres not enough money is materialistic, and wordly. God doesn't always take away the trials in our lives, He waits to see how we handle them, how we plan on walking through, with Him, or without Him. You have apparently decided God isn't blessing you becasue you don't have money, as if money is a show of God's blessing, you couldn't further from the truth. Obeying God is never laziness, olutting children's needs first isn't laziness, and I'm sorry you feel God isn't doing good enough for you and you have to do it yourself.
The old saying that God helps those who helps themselves is not biblical, and is certainly a lie.
You yourselves have gotten into the finical trouble your in, now your going to have to live with the conquesnces you've created.
When it ocmes to scripture all you have said, 'you can bet' which means no proof there to support you. Times may have changed, but God has not. Why not do that study actually looking for God's plan for mothrs/women,and not looking to support your own personal view?

 

Well said Ron and Katie!

Ron mentioned your church helping or a dentist who helps.... My own dentist has reduced prices for me and even not charged for certain things when we didn't have dental insurance. Some wonderful and loving people gave me the money for a root canal. What a blessing that was!

Katie corrected your list of priorities and she's so right! God has to come first and then your husband and children, even if they are NOT your biological children, then others and yourself must be last.

You said there are no careers that have 9-3 type hours. Oh yes there are! Even teacher's assistants can get benefits and decent pay. However, I get the impression that it is your desire to make a lot more money than an aide would make.

I did not realize your husband had told you that you had to go to work. That would change my reply. However, I still think there is a safer job and jobs that won't take you away from this new marriage and new family.

God will open doors if you keep an open mind.

God bless,
Diane

 

Hi Kelly, Those were some tough replies to you but done out of love. Sometimes we feel so strongly about things we really post with passion. I don't think on your list of priorities you meant to put your husband over God. Submitting to your husband IS honoring God. Raising your children in the ways of the Lord IS putting God first. Keep praying Kelly and take the posts here from your brothers and sisters as advice and ideas to pray about and ponder.

I agree with Ron (T2U) that your church family should have been helping you out. If you belong to a church family that doesn't serve eachother or you are embarassed to tell your needs to, it is time for a new church family. At our local assembly one call could have meals brought to a family for a month straight. Maybe God is speaking to you about where you are fellowshipping through all this.

I will be praying for peace for you and your family as God leads you and continues His work in you.

In Christian Love,
Brian

 

Brian, I'm glad you were able to see where I was coming from. Yes I care both about Kelly and her family and God and his side in any situation. I want Kelly to know I am not jumping on her, I want her to be able to see she can count on God even if it doesn't happen in her time schedule.

 

Kelly you said:

That is a very ugly statment. Katie was not ugly to you in any way. I think you owe her an apology!

Let's see...
Starving? Beans and Rice.
Freezing? No gas for the car.
Shack? A tiny apartment for 5 people.

Again.... YOU said: I would be very quick to examine my heart and mind for hidden sins if I found my family living in a shack, starving and freezing. Especially before I passed judgment....

Diane

 

3AngelsMom, I'll miss your posts. But of course will gladly pray for your family while you are away.

Please be sure to check in and tell us how you are doing when you get in to your training.

How exciting. But I can relate to how it must make you feel to leave the family so far away for a time.

God bless you and take care of yourself.
Laurenda

 

Kelly I'm sorry you feel that way, especially since I haven't said anything wrong or out of the way to you. I know my bible very well, thank you, I know God is the ultimate number 1, absoultly nothing else takes His place as number 1. I think oyu need to be praying about God having His prper place in oyur life,and not putting hIm anywhere else besides number 1. I am sorry you will not consider scripture.
Here I got this in my email a few minutes ago and it made me think of you.

The Blessing Of Thorns
=======================

Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes as she pushed
against a November gust and the florist shop door. Her life had
been easy, like a spring breeze. Then in the fourth month of
her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole her
ease.

During this Thanksgiving week she would have delivered a son.
She grieved over her loss. As if that weren't enough, her
husband's company threatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose
annual holiday visit she coveted, called saying she could not
come.

What's worse, Sandra's friend infuriated her by suggesting her
grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to
empathize with others who suffer. "She has no idea what I'm
feeling," thought Sandra with a shudder.

"Thanksgiving? Thankful for what?" she wondered aloud. For a
careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-
ended her? For an airbag that saved her life but took that of
her child?

"Good afternoon, can I help you?"

The shop clerk's approach startled her.

"I....I need an arrangement, "stammered Sandra. "For
Thanksgiving?

Do you want beautiful but ordinary, or would you like to
challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the
Thanksgiving Special?" asked the shop clerk.

"I'm convinced that flowers tell stories," she continued.

"Are you looking for something that conveys 'gratitude' this
Thanksgiving?

"Not exactly!" Sandra blurted out. "In the last five months,
everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. " Sandra
regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the shop clerk
said, "I have the perfect arrangement for you."

Then the door's small bell rang, and the shop clerk said, "Hi
Barbara...let me get your order." She politely excused herself
and walked toward a small workroom, then quickly reappeared,
carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows, and long-stemmed
thorny roses.

Except the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped...there
were no flowers.

"Want this in a box?" asked the clerk.

Sandra watched for the customer's response. Was this a joke?
Who would want rose stems with no flowers!?! She waited for
laughter, but neither woman laughed. "Yes, please," Barbara
replied with an appreciative smile.

"You'd think after three years of getting the special, I
wouldn't be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it
right here, all over again," she said as she gently tapped her
chest.

"Uhh," stammered Sandra, "that lady just left with, uhh... she
just left with no flowers!"

"Right...I cut off the flowers. That's the Special... I call
it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet.

"Oh, come on, you can't tell me someone is willing to pay for
that?" exclaimed Sandra.

"Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling very much
like you feel today," explained the clerk. "She thought she had
very little to be thankful for. She had lost her father to
cancer, the family business was failing, her son was into drugs,
and she was facing major surgery."

"That same year I had lost my husband, "continued the clerk,"
and for the first time in my life, I had to spend the holidays
alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too
great a debt to allow any travel.


"So what did you do?" asked Sandra. "I learned to be thankful
for thorns," answered the clerk quietly. "I've always thanked
God for good things in life and never thought to ask Him why
those good things happened to me, but when bad stuff hit, did I
ever ask! It took time for me to learn that dark times are
important.

I always enjoyed the 'flowers' of life, but it took
thorns to show me the beauty of God's comfort. You know, the
Bible says that God comforts us when we're afflicted, and from
His consolation we learn to comfort others.

"Sandra sucked in her breath as she thought about the very thing
her friend had tried to tell her. "I guess the truth is I don't
want comfort.

I've lost a baby and I'm angry with God."

Just then someone else walked in the shop.

"Hey, Phil!" shouted the clerk to the balding, rotund man.

"My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving arrangement
....twelve thorny, long-stemmed stems!" laughed Phil as the
clerk handed him a tissue-wrapped arrangement from the
refrigerator.

"Those are for your wife?" asked Sandra incredulously. "Do you
mind me asking why she wants something that looks like that?

"No...I'm glad you asked," Phil replied. "Four years ago my
wife and I nearly divorced. After forty years, we were in a
real mess, but with the Lord's grace and guidance, we slogged
through problem after problem.

He rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she
kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she learned from
"thorny" times, and that was good enough for me. I took home
some of those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one
for a specific "problem" and give thanks to Him for what that
problem taught us."

As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, "I highly recommend
the Special!"

"I don't know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life."
Sandra said to the clerk. "It's all too... fresh."

"Well," the clerk replied carefully, "my experience has shown me
that thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God's
providential care more during trouble than at any other time.

Remember, it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might
know His love. Don't resent the thorns."

Tears rolled down Sandra's cheeks. For the first time since the
accident, she loosened her grip on resentment. "I'll take those
twelve long-stemmed thorns, please," she managed to choke out.

"I hoped you would," said the clerk gently. "I'll have them
ready in a minute."

"Thank you. What do I owe you?" asked Sandra.

"Nothing." said the clerk.

"Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The
first year's arrangement is always on me. "The clerk smiled and
handed a card to Sandra.

"I'll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you'd like
to read it first."

It read:

"Dear God, I have never thanked you for my thorns. I have
thanked you a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my
thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the
value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to you
along the path of pain.

Show me that, through my tears, the colors of your rainbow look
much more brilliant."

~Author Unknown~

 

So do you think the woman in the story sat back and let bad stuff happen to her? You don't seem to understand anything do you?

You know nothing about me and yet you feel you can jump me and say abd things about me and I haven't done anything to you. If that makes you 'feel' more christian, then you do it.
Lets see, we lived in the country, no car, no way to get a job and go to work. No money for a car or insurance. No where to leave the kids if I abandoned them. I was 16 when my son was born.
Kids more important then what my house was like or anything, my kids beleive it is a test of a mothers love, if she is at home with ehr kids. They see kids with no mother at home as not being loved. And to think of it, so did some of their friends in school, they told my kids how lucky they were their mother loved them enough to be home for them when they needed her(me).
Your obviously the one with the chip,you think you know better then God. You say God isn't doing anything to help you so you have to do it yourself. You talka bout faith, but exhibit none of it. You box God in, do it no, do it my way, or I'm doing it, becasue you can't or won't.
I truely feel sorry for people like you, you just can't trust God in day to day life, you just don't get it, and don't want to either if it differes from what you want it to be.
Get those scales removed from your eyes and you might understand scripture finally.
Good bye

 

Hi Kelly, I am not going to comment on what others are saying this time, I just wanted to point something out. The verses in proverbs that we call the "virtuous(sp?) women" are actually showing the three stages that a woman of God goes through. The first verses show the young mom and wife, the next set show where the wife and husband would have been established for a while with older, even adult children, and the last few verses show what an elderly woman should be doing. Those verses are a beautiful illustration of the life of a woman, or what a life in God can look like. You have to look at where you are in your life now and plug yourself into those verses and see if what you are doing lines up with the example that God has put in those verses from Proverbs. I will pray that you continue to seek God and that you are right where He wants you to be, which may or may not be where you want to be.

God bless you sister,
Brian

 

Kelly, I only gave you my opinion as a mother of 4 and a wife of 33 years (to the same man) and how I feel about you leaving this new family for so long. One would think you'd be flattered that I think this mans children would not want you to go away for so long!

My husband, children and grandchildren are SO very important to me and I can only see things from that perspective. It may well be that you do not understand our intense mothering instincts since you've not had children of your own.

I certainly don't think you're being attacked but just that Katie and I feel strongly about a woman leaving her family, if only for months, and also putting herself in the line of danger.

Katie has been married to the same man almost as long as you've been alive. Her sons are grown. I think your remark about her marrying young and a possible pregnancy is out of line unless you were a virgin when you married this man you are now married to. I don't judge Katie and her husband and neither should others! Also, for your information, Katie DOES work out of her home. She makes and sells primitive art. Her business off the internet supplements her husband's income quite well.

You want us to discuss Proverbs 31. It's futile. I see it as a woman, caring for her family and you see it as a testimony for women to work to help provide for her family. We've dicussed this many times on bb.com and the two sides never agree. Why waste our time again?

I will pray for the Lord to supply all your needs and that the Lord bless these children, fill their hearts with love and that they will be held in the palm of HIS hand during this time of trial. If it is God's will for you to get this position, then I certainly pray He will open doors, guide you in all your decisions and bless your efforts.

Again, I didn't see any of my remarks as an attack and if you felt they were rude, I apologize! It's just that mothering instinct fighting for these kids! A mommy is worth much more than any woman could ever earn.


Be Safe,
Diane

 

Somehow your dirty little mind can't seem to understand what real love is. I met my futhure husband when I was 8, I saw him every summer in Ky, funally when I was 15 we moved back to Ky, and we started dating, we soon realized we were in love, and married a few months later. Thats been 23 years. Unlike you our love is perment, when we say I love you, we mean it, even through hard times we still mean it, we don't abandon one another when times are hard. And as scripture teaches us, I've had one man all my life,what about you? Scripture teaches you get one husband.
Why do people always think if you married young you had to be pregant? It's usually people with dirty minds, who can not comprehend a true life long love, with the commitment to stick it out, no matter what.