S Club Mama

Have you ever thought to yourself, as a Christian, "am I doing this right?" or "if I'm doing this right, why don't I feel closer to God?" Yeah, I've been there, too. It's a rough, rough place to be in, striving so hard to 'get it right' that you end up chasing God rather than following Him. That's the premise of Angie Smith's new book, "Chasing God." I have so much of this book highlighted because it spoke directly to where I was. I was begging to hear from God but I wasn't hearing. I was trying to be set apart but had instead set up rules and judgement. I was really striving to do the right things but it wasn't enough. Smith writes, "So much of my time with the Lord has been spent trying to prove myself - not just to Him, but to everyone around me. I want to show myself worthy of the calling that has been placed on me, and that is where the chasing has, well, finally caught up with me. I want to live a lif...

"Hope Runs" by Claire Diaz-Ortiz and Samuel Ikua Gachagua is a really awesome book about "an American tourist, a Kenyan boy, a journey of redemption." In short, it's a really great story! Claire and her friend, Lara, decided to travel the world for a year and ended up at an orphanage in Kenya. There they changed the lives of so many kids with their organization Hope Runs . They also met Samuel (Sammy) whose life they would change forever. image via Amazon After their initial stay in Kenya, the girls end up back there for a year and train many of the kids at the home to run a marathon. They developed a real relationship with Sammy and this book is about their time at the orphanage and beyond. After they left, they helped Sammy get a scholarship to a boarding school in Maine. "Hope Runs" tells about all of this grand adventure! Sammy getting his passport and visa (talk about endurance), his first few years at school, and eventually his desire ...

OK so at my Encounter weekend, God also showed me that I need to be VERY careful of what I allow into my head and heart in the forms of entertainment. That means getting rid of a tv show that has a clairvoyant in it (as a bad guy but still). That means not reading the celebrity magazines I do enjoy. That means deleting some songs off of our iTunes (luckily I have a whole list of new lovely ones to add). That also means being cautious of movies I watch AND that I allow my children to watch. I am the adult, the parent, their practical protector here on earth. They are NOT my children but HIS children that He has allowed me to parent. SO I will be more careful of things I allow myself to promote and review on the blog, too. So I give you the sneak peek into Dolphin Tale 2 (the first movie was released in 2011). I hope you enjoy it; looks like a super cute film (and I love Morgan Freeman).

Another tale from Women's Encounter and what God told me there. Read Parts 1 and 2 if you missed them. My legalism lead to self-righteous judgmental hypocrisy. Well, that lead to pride (perhaps pride lead to all of those but it circled back around). One thing we were told before we left was to share our testimonies (not necessarily our conversion stories but what God has told us recently). A testimony is a witness of God - of His work. I have known for a looooooong time that I have troubles sharing with others about the Good News of Jesus Christ. I have prayed about it. I have read books on evangelism (which is fancy terms for telling that Christ died for your sins - and mine - upon a cross, paying our debt of sin so that we can reunite with God in Spirit and later in heaven). I do a great job in my head of playing out conversations. They get insane in there; things people would NEVER say to me come out in my head. I am my own worst condemner. Well, this affects my sharing t...

I'm in the midst of reading Hope Runs by Claire Diaz-Ortiz and Sammy Ikua Gachaqua. The book launches this week so I'm hurrying to be able to share my review this week! However, with the book launch comes all sorts of neat offers that I wanted to share with you. I've copied all of this from Claire's website so please if you want to visit, do so here . Here are the details on the book launch incentives and goodies you can win! And if you order this week you’ll get not only $150 in freebies, but you’ll also be entered to win over $1,000 in prizes. (Just keep reading…) The book, as I’ve said, is not the book many folks expected me to write. It’s not a book about business, productivity, or technology book. Not at all. Hope Runs is a joint memoir with my Kenyan foster son, all about the strange journey we’ve taken together. From meeting him in his orphanage in 2006, to spending a year living in his orphanage and starting a non-profit organization, to ultimately bri...

Bear with me as I share with you all that God showed me at Encounter . I don't know how many posts this will take! God also showed me that, spiraling from my legalism, I have become self-righteous and judgmental. I have become a hypocrite. Again, a Pharisee (so thankful for spell-check because I can never seem to get this right on the first typing). Those that the Lord and John the Baptist had some pretty strong words about. *sigh* I have looked down on those who have less. Romans 11:9-10 says, "Likewise, David said,    'Let their bountiful table become a snare,     a trap that makes them think all is well.   Let their blessings cause them to stumble,     and let them get what they deserve.'" I'm not even rich (in worldly standards), so imagine if I had more physical blessings how blinded I'd have been. Maybe you are rich and you are intimate with Christ, but beware your comforts. Sometimes in America we are so rich, we are blind to our ri...

I went this past weekend to this mysterious event called Women's Encounter down near Augusta, KS. I wasn't really excited to go because I couldn't really get out of anyone what would happen there. No schedule. No checklist (not even for packing really other than a tip to bring a sweater). No account of "oh you do this first and then this happens...." Nothing. Have you noticed I like lists? Checklists, to-do lists, honey-do lists, instructions, guidelines, plans. That's me: Miss Type A personality. Which is really weird considering I'm not that great at organizing things (seriously, you should see our closets). Anyway. I went because Big A came home from a Bible study and said we should sign up. Ok. Done. However, once things got rolling down at Wheat State Camp, I understood the mystery. It's not mysterious to scare anyone or to keep secrets (there is no Kool-Aid) but because when you are off-guard, sometimes that is when God can really talk to y...

I'll be honest, I'm a sucker for stories about people overcoming disabilities, sicknesses, etc for God's glory. This is why I wanted to read Nick Vujicic's book "Unstoppable." I think I'd seen him on daytime tv once but hadn't paid much attention; otherwise, I've never seen any of his YouTube videos or heard much about him. I saw what I saw on the cover - a man surfing with no arms and no legs. Yet, through this book, I learned that he is so much more than what he isn't. Vujicic is a man after God's own heart - and he wants you to be too (unless you're a woman, then he wants you to be a woman after God's own heart, of course!). I just love the premise of this book: to not let circumstances stop our mission of spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the pages, Vujicic talked a LOT about finding your passion. I've been soul-searching and praying and talking about this very thing! I don't 100% know my passion. It used to...