I'm posting today because it is Mother's Day and I want to talk about my amazing mom :)

I could say a lot of great things about my mom- her talent in music, her generosity, her devotion to family, etc. She is truly a Proverbs 31 woman.

But what I really want to say about my mother is how selflessly she gave to her children. 

She has always put her children above her own wants. She left her career to stay home and raise her children. 

This was a sacrifice in many ways- loss of another income, not going out to a job every day having a little time to yourself away from home, not getting to have a retirement, or even just the satisfaction of working for yourself. 

She sacrificed things in order to really be there for her kids. 

The thing is though, she desired to be at home being a full time mom raising her kids and getting to teach them and be there for all their "firsts". 

So she made that choice as soon as she could, and we have benefitted from it ever since.

My mother was always there. Any time I have a memory of childhood, she was there. She was my cheerleader, my supporter, my advisor, my example. She was- and still is- a listening ear and a loving hug. 

I cannot thank her enough for the sacrifices she made to really be with us kids every step of the way.

The most important thing she ever did was to teach her children to know and love the Lord. That is truly the most important thing any mother can do. 

My mother prayed with us and for us, and that continues to this day. 
She talked about the Lord with us. 
She read to us from the bible consistently as we were growing up. 
She did daily devotions with us. 
She was an example to us as we saw her having quiet bible time on her own every morning. 
As we got older she shared her struggles and how the Lord brought her through them.

She is such an example to me of a woman of character and faith.
The best mom is a praying mom. My mom did the best things any mother can do for her children. And for that I am so grateful.

And she did make the choice to give up a career to be at home with us, but another way to put it is that she simply found a better job.
Instead of making money, she made an investment in our lives.

"I thank my God upon every remembrance of you. 

 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." 

Philippians 1:3-5

Two Great Articles

Wanted to update my blog just quickly, with two FANTASTIC articles I discovered on a website called IJustMetMe.com and both articles are about single Christians looking for marriage. 

It's a hard look at your motives and methods. 

What an eye opener!!!

Here is the article for ladies:

http://ijustmetme.com/2014/07/9-reasons-you-may-not-know-why-christian-singles-ladies-cant-find-their-boaz-david-or-joseph/

Here is the article for men:

http://ijustmetme.com/2014/07/11-reasons-you-may-not-know-why-single-christian-men-cant-find-their-ruth-esther-or-mary/

Prayer is so important!

Last night I couldn't sleep. I lay in bed from eleven thirty to four in the morning, tossing and turning and counting in my head and wishing I could get to sleep. Finally, I realized something: It had been days since I had *really* prayed. 

Oh, I had prayed quickly- "Lord, thank you for my family, I'm so blessed to have them. And please help my friend feel better with her illness. Amen". 

Those quick prayers are fine and good. I'm not knocking them. We need to be in constant contact with God throughout our day- praying quickly and often is good for us! 

Many small prayers throughout our day keep us in touch with the Lord.

Sort of like how you may not stop and talk to a friend for hours at a time, but, you text them a sentence or two throughout the day to keep in touch.

But a text to a friend now and again is not enough. You will be in the dark about many things going on in your friends life and you will not really understand her heart, unless you specifically and intentionally carve out time to really get to know her. To have long conversations and share eachother's hearts.

That is what I needed. That is what I hadn't done for several days.

I'd quickly spoken to God throughout my day, but I hadn't prayed kind of prayer where the time just flies by because your heart is so wrapped up in the Lord...the kind of prayer that, when you are finished, leaves you feeling like you just poured your deepest feelings with your very best friend. 

That is what I needed so desperately.

I try, when I pray, to follow the example Christ gave for us (The Lord's Prayer) by first praising the Lord and thanking Him, followed by asking for God's will to be done, then humbly asking for the things I need or want, and finally asking God to forgive my sins and be with me to help me turn from sin in the future. Following this example from The Lord's Prayer helps me to stay focused. 

As I lay in bed, I prayed. It could have been an hour or two, I don't know- I just know I was pouring my heart out, sharing everything that was inside of me, talking and talking and talking to Jesus as my best friend.

By the time I was "done" with my prayer, I felt the most incredible peace wash over me. I felt God's calming presence, and I knew the He was listening to His child. And talking to my savior must have been just the thing I needed, because as I finished my prayer, I immediately and easily slipped into a peaceful slumber. 

How many times must we toss and turn in our beds with the worries of the day haunting us, until we realize that we are not alone? Prayer is SO necessary to our hearts and minds. 

My grandparents always had a little plaque on their wall that said, "Have you prayed about it?" As a child and teenager and now an adult, it was always a good reminder to me that if I was worried about something, the very first thing I needed to do was pray. 

As you go to bed tonight, I would encourage you to remember to pray. Don't pray as a routine, or as a ritual that must be done with certain words and certain timing. Purpose to end your day with a heart-to-heart conversation with your best friend. 

Not only does He desperately long to hear from us, but, we SO need that time with Him. 

I believe that you will find yourself feeling lighter, sleeping better, and enjoying a sense of calm you didn't have before. Prayer is good for the heart, the mind, the soul, and the body.  

Sweet dreams!

I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety. -Psalm 4:8

Winter is a reminder of the fall of man

Today my mom and I spent a few hours raking and bagging leaves in our yard, no easy task since our yard is quite large. We wanted to surprise my dad when he came home from work, since he probably thought he would end up doing all the yard work- it is so much fun to surprise someone by getting work done so they won't have to do it!  While bagging up piles of wet, limp leaves (and seeing the gloomy looking bare tree branches) I was reminded of the fall of man. 

It would be easier not to have trees in our yard at all, so that in the fall and winter we wouldn't have to do all the raking and bagging of leaves. 

But if we didn't have any trees in our yard, we wouldn't get their shade and their beauty in the spring and summer. 

We have to work the ground in order to enjoy the beauty in the spring.

Before sin, man did not toil or labor in order to keep a pretty garden. God made the beautiful garden and kept it perfect for his perfect creation. Everything was the way it should have been, the way God wanted it. It didn't even rain back then- God caused dew to rise from the ground. Man simply ate from the trees and didn't know what hard work was. Imagine not knowing what hard work was! 

It was only after the first sin, after the fall of man, that man began to have to really work to keep his environment livable and sustainable. 

It was part of the curse, the punishment for sin. 

God told Eve that her punishment would be that childbirth would be painful. 

This is something that is unique to humans- those who work with animals have stated that animals do not experience the levels of pain that humans do when giving birth- animals are able to give birth with discomfort, but not pain (barring some unforeseen problem in birth). This makes sense, since animals do not have free will- they simply behave exactly the way God made them to behave! 

But humans, who have free will and chose to go against God's word, now experience pain in childbirth. 

What only animals now experience is probably how God originally designed childbirth to be for all creatures, but human women's childbirth was changed by God to be painful as punishment.

The other part of Eve's punishment was that she would desire her husband and he would rule over her. Some people think this means that originally God had Adam and Eve as more of equal partners, but after Eve caused the downfall of mankind, God stated to her that her husband would now rule over her. 

Adam's punishment was that things would no longer come easily to him- he would not be in the perfect garden anymore, and he would now have to labor and sweat, working the ground in order to make a life for his family. 

So, the bare trees lying on the ground and us spending hours raking and bagging leaves reminded me of how far we are from the garden of Eden and what God intended for us to have. All because of our sinful nature, to go our own way instead of following God's word! 

When we work to rake and bag the leaves, we can really feel the impact of the choices of Adam and Eve so long ago. 

But, the good part is that even though God has punished mankind with toil and labor and seasons of empty cold, He still chooses to bless his wayward children...every year God sends the springtime to us again.  Soon the barren trees will be full and beautiful, and we will be reminded of God's love for us. 

For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Losing Bunny

When Bunny first showed up at our back door, our dog Max didn't treat her like the neighborhood cats he'd chased away, Bunny was always different. She came up onto our deck, hungry and begging, an emaciated mama cat unable to nurse her kittens. We brought her a bowl of milk to start with, and Max, who normally would have charged ahead to get to the milk, just hung back, not trying to get the milk, simply watching her lap it up quietly. When she finished it, he tentatively crept forward and after a few minutes he began gently licking her head. She purred.

Bunny didn't come into our house that day, in fact it would be a few weeks before we saw her again. 

But Max didn't forget about her. Even while she was away, he seemed to know that she was going to be his friend. 

When we finally brought Bunny into our home for good, Max was excited and knew she was here to stay, and he was happy about it- He literally brought her every single toy he had- 

One by one, he laid each of his toys down in front of her, with a little wag of his tail, as if to say, "Im glad you're here to stay now. I've been waiting and waiting for my friend to come."  

Of course Bunny could not play with his toys, most of them were almost as big as she was! 

But, she must have understood the offer of his toys meant he liked her and wanted her around. 

She was never afraid of the giant dog. 

When Max took walks Bunny trotted along beside him. People would come out of their houses to see her taking a walk with her friend.

Bunny was also the only cat allowed the privilege of laying on Max's bed. If any of our other cats tried it, he would poke them off the bed indignantly. But when Bunny laid down on Max's bed, Max just laid down beside her. If she took up too much room, he'd lay on the bare floor next to her instead of making her move. 

Last year on the day before Christmas Eve, we lost Max to a heart attack. Today we had to say goodbye to our Bunny. 

As the veterinarian examined Bunny, she had to tell us that there was no heartbeat: Bunny was gone. Then the doctor leaned down, kissed our cat on the head and told her, "Now you can go be with Max and you can go see your babies."

So Bunny was gone. After a long and stressful night, she had fallen asleep on my shoulder, relaxed and comfortable, ready to drift off into dreamland and leave the world behind.

And I'd like to think that when she woke up, Max was waiting there, along with Bunny's kittens ready to finally be with their mama. 

And just like that day so many years ago, Max will greet her with a little wag of his tag, as if to say, "I'm glad you're here to stay now. I've been waiting and waiting for my friend to come."

The Most Important Day of My Life

The most important day of my life happened when I was just six years old.

I grew up in a Christian household. I was blessed to be born into a family that loved the Lord and tried to live to honor Him.  Had I not been raised to be a Christian, I certainly still could have become a Christian later in life, but, it would have been a much harder road, and there's the possibility I would never have even been introduced to Christ, much less fall in love with Him.  Starting out my life in a family that already knew and loved the Lord certainly gave me an advantage.  (Although I do want to add that people who weren't raised in a Christian household but heard and felt the Lord calling to them certainly have a beautiful and powerful testimony to share!)

Another thing that gave me an advantage is that I'm just not a skeptic.  Some people are very skeptical.  I don't mean just about God, I mean just in general.  They have to see real, indisputable proof or they just can't bring their minds to accept a thing.  I'm not like that.  I never felt the need to have solid proof in order to believe in something.  To me, my faith IS my proof.  The faith that I have in God and the things He had done in my life, in my heart, and in the world are all the proof I'll ever need.  I feel sad for people who cannot believe unless they see.  I remember as a teenager, reading a book about the life of poet Emily Dickinson.  A religious revival was sweeping Amherst, and right and left Emily's friends were going up before the church to declare their faith in Jesus.   Emily wrote about how she, too, wanted to have a strong faith. She wanted to believe just as earnestly as her friends did.  But even though she wanted to believe, she just...couldn't.   I remember crying at that part, thinking how sad it was to desperately want to believe but to find yourself so skeptical, so in need of solid proof, that you end up being unable or unwilling to give your whole heart over.

And of course, the trouble with proof is, once you have it- that’s all you have.  If there was some way for you to PROVE Jesus Christ is who He says He is, then you’d have your proof…but you wouldn’t have faith.   Not really, anyway.  Faith is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 KJV). Faith is all about not needing proof!  Faith is knowing something in your heart, instead of in your head.

So let me go back to that day- the day I was saved.  I’d always heard about God and Jesus of course, and I’d grown up listening to Bible stories and going to Sunday School, but it never felt personal.  It was just…stories.  I believed them, the same way I’d believe a history book, but it just didn’t really connect to my heart yet.  Until one day, in Sunday School, my teacher ended the lesson by talking about Jesus’ love for us.  Not just a general kind of love, as in God loves the whole world, but an individual love- that Jesus loved each and every one of us.  And He wanted us to be with Him forever.  God cannot abide sin, but Jesus came to take all our sins away from us.  He gave His life, spilled His blood, because only the blood of the savior could wash us clean as snow.

And you know what?

Even if you were the only person in the whole world who needed Him- you, just one little insignificant person- if you were the only person that would or could ever be saved by Him,

He still would have done it.

All of the pain, the humiliation, agony, death…all of it.  He’d do it. To save you. Just you.  He wouldn’t think, “I’ll go through this is it will save a thousand people,” or, “Well, I guess I can do it to save a hundred lives.”  

He did what He did because He thought of the people He loved, and He counted you among them.

Because He loves you.

He knows you inside and out, He knows your heart, He knows every thought you’ve ever had- and despite every wicked thought and deed, your heart is still the most precious thing in the world to Him.

So…

It wasn’t just a story.

It wasn’t just a history lesson.  It was Someone who loved me, Someone who had spent my whole life calling out to me, and waiting for me to answer Him.

So I did.

I raised my hand when it came time for prayer.  And I told the teacher I wanted to pray to Jesus to invite Him into my heart.  She sat down with me, by ourselves, in the corner of the room, and she asked me if I understood what I was saying- if I knew who Jesus was, what He did for me, why it mattered…I was six, and she wanted to make sure I wasn’t putting my hand up thinking it was all a game.  I knew it wasn’t.  I knew even at six years old that I was making an important decision, a decision that would change me.

I felt a mixture of emotions before we prayed.  I felt incredibly excited, more excited than I ever had been before, but I also felt very burdened by the weight of my own sin.  Up until that moment I had no real knowledge of sin or conscience.  But admitting my need for Christ meant acknowledging that my heart was dark.  I thought of all the times I had done things I knew were wrong, and what’s worse, the times I knew my thought life wasn’t pure- feeling angry, feeling jealous, feeling bitter, resentment, laughing at someone, etc- those feelings were not Christ-like, but up until that moment I had never been bothered by them.  Now I saw my need.

My Sunday school teacher explained that if I asked Jesus to forgive my sins, He would, and I’d be washed clean as snow.  It didn’t mean I’d never do anything bad again, but it meant that Jesus would be with me to help me and when I did sin again, He was faithful to forgive me.  She said that Jesus loved me, and if I had decided that I loved Him and I believed in Him, that I could ask Him to come live in my heart, and if I did that, He would always be there.  He would never leave me, not for the rest of my life, and someday, when I died, I would get to be with Christ forever in heaven.

We bowed our heads and I prayed.  I said that I was sorry for my sins and I wanted to ask Jesus to forgive me.  I asked Him to come into my heart and be my savior.  It was such a simple thing, but it was the defining moment in my life.

I felt something then.  More physical than spiritual.  I felt a weight being lifted off me, and I felt a light being placed inside me.  It’s hard to describe, but I felt as if someone lit a torch and placed it directly inside my chest, where the heart is.  A warm glow, radiating out of me and shining everywhere. A light that wanted to be seen! I believe that light was the Holy Spirit coming into me.  And then I knew what God’s love felt like.  It filled me up and bubbled over and I wanted to share it with everyone!  That light has never gone out.  (It may have been dampened a bit when I was a teenager and trying to go my own way! But thankfully, that light was always there, underneath, the Holy Spirit convicting me until at last I was restored.)  When people talk about the moment they were saved, the description of feelings seems to be different for everyone.  And that makes sense, because everyone is a unique individual created by God and God reaches people in different and unique ways.  I’ve heard people say it felt as if a weight was lifted off them, I’ve heard people who said they couldn’t stop crying and people who couldn’t stop laughing and shouting with joy!  I’ve also heard less “exciting” feelings- some people say they simply felt a sense of calm wash over them, a feeling of deep peace when Jesus came into their heart.  The moment you give yourself over to Christ is deeply personal and individual.

So what happened later? Well, as I said, I felt as if I had light radiating out of me. I couldn’t WAIT to share the good news! As Sunday School ended, and my parents came to pick me up, I remember just running to them, and saying excitedly, “I got saved!”

And of course they were happy and shared in my joy.  As a Christian parent, you want your children to know the perfect peace and love that comes only from Jesus Christ.  When I was saved, it was the most important day of my life, but I also think that it was also one of the most important days of my parents and grandparents lives- just as I am sure that someday, when I have children, the day each of them accepts Christ as their personal savior (God willing) will be of equal importance to me- The day they become a part of God’s family will be so much more important than the day they became a part of my family!

After being saved, I then was baptized.  What people need to understand about baptism is that it doesn’t save you.  Baptism is just a dip in a pool, or a sprinkling of water on your head (as a Baptist, I believe is baptism by immersion, rather than sprinkling, because baptism by immersion if the example Jesus gave us.)  Baptism is important, but it’s just an act.  Baptism is just the way to show the community/church that something has been transformed in you!  The real change has to be in your heart- the decision you make to follow Christ.  Baptism is “an outward sign of an inward change”.

Now that I have told you some of my story (there’s more, trust me- I’ve lived a full life since age six!) I’ll show you a couple of pictures, and then I’d love to hear YOUR stories.  Feel free to comment below or email me at BrookeOnFilm@gmail.com with your testimony, advice, questions, etc.  Thank you for reading my blog!

My baptism.

The church bulletin from our church in Cleveland that we went to when I was a little girl and I was saved and baptized at. 

Homemade Ice Cream Bars

I decided to make homemade ice cream bars. It was the first time I ever attempted it, so, I didn't know what they would be like. I tried my best, and the results were yummy but not very pretty. I plan to try again this week to improve them!

 

 

 

Here is the first shot I took, the ice cream is starting to melt out of the sides so it looks a bit messy! But, at least you can see the layers of chocolate and caramel on the top and bottom.

 

 

 Here is another view but by now the ice cream is really melting out! I forgot to take pictures until they were already melting, and that resulted in them being left out too long anyway :(

Here is the other type I made. I made chocolate boxes (five sides of chocolate; the sixth side which was the bottom was left open so I could put squares of vanilla ice cream inside) and then I decorated the tops with Reeses pieces. They look messy because I had a lot of trouble making the chocolate boxes, it was hard to form them into perfect squares, the end result being that they are not perfect. lol.