The Lord has blessed us so much lately, I just have to blog and tell you all about it. I was going to put this entry out yesterday, and I never got around to it, which now I know was from the Lord, because He blessed us again this morning.
A few days ago I was praying about Christmas gifts I'm making for my family. They are simple cross-stitch "Welcome" signs that I wanted to frame. We just didn't have the money, even for cheap frames. So I'm walking around the house Thursday morning, just sort of praying to myself, asking the Lord to show me what I can do. I feel like He's saying to search online for it. Hmmm, ok, never really thought of that. So I do a search online. The first link, no good. The second link I click was perfect. It was an idea of using card stock paper and cutting out a frame. Which would be perfect for the simple projects I did. Plus, I have lots of pretty cardstock paper from my scrapbook supplies (that I hardly ever use). It might seem completely simple and nothing big, but this was just a huge answer to prayer. Plus, just an encouragement for me hearing from the Lord. I don't know if you ever go through times wondering and doubting if you can hear from the Lord, but I have been in that time. Just feeling like I can't hear His voice anymore. It's been hard. But Friday, the Lord just blessed me with lots of 'little' things He showed me. Some other ideas and such that were going around in my mind, and He would guide me. It was just such an encouragement from the Lord, and a true blessing, in and of itself.
Then Friday we get that extra check we were expecting, that I was going to use for my license. Now, it's free to add to my Christmas shopping today. Today's Christmas shopping went great, and I have it all finished. I found things right away, and I only had to order a few things online when I got home.
Now, for today's huge blessing. We are having a hard time meeting people at our new church. If you remember, we were going to a smaller church in a town about 30 minutes away. Well with gas prices and such, we've had to go to the church that is about 3 minutes from us. We love it, great teaching, kids classes etc... But it's big, each service has about 300 people. And it's real hard to meet people. People are friendly and all, but when you have that many people, if you don't know a few, well it's hard. Plus the Lord was showing us, that it's truly a time to focus and lean on Him. See, we've always been or known people in the leadership positions at church. For 8 years, we were the leaders of that one church we went to. Then, the next church we went to, a good friend taught some classes there, and knew all the pastors. So because of that, we knew all the pastors. Then we move to a small town where everyone knows everyone. But now, we are in a church where we don't know anyone. We thought about stepping up for some sort of service, but truly, for us, we feel that churches shouldn't just allow anyone to step up into ministry without truly knowing their walk with the Lord. Not in a judging sort of way, but in a fruit bearing sort of way. You know, to get to know people first and such. Well, Wednesday, the pastor taught that he believes in the exact same thing. What a blessing to know we believe the same, but also a little hard, because we still don't know anyone. So I called on a Woman's bible study I want to go to. No one has called me back yet. I can't find out if there is any homeschoolers, and it just seems like we aren't getting anywhere. This morning Paul went to the men's bible study in the morning. He said it was great. He starts talking to this guy and at the end of their conversation Paul brings up that we homeschool. The man's response? "Oh, so do we." "And there's a homeschool support group that meets here at the church once a month, with about 12 families that go." Can you say, Thank You Lord! And it's the exact kind of group we like, just a support group. No teaching the other kids, it's not a co-op. Not that I have anything against those, it's just not my style. I just like to get together with other mom's and fellowship while the kids play, and that's what this group does. So we are going to church tonight, instead of tomorrow morning's service, because this family goes on Saturday's. Not only do I want to meet the wife, but I want to get more information on this homeschool group. We usually go Sunday mornings, but for tonight we'll go. Actually, at another church we went on Saturday nights, and quite enjoyed it. But who knows if we'll start that now.
So, we are just getting ready to head out to church tonight. But I really wanted to get this post out and thank the Lord publicly for all He has blessed us with the past few days. I will let you know how tonight goes and what information I find out about the homeschool group.
What a fun entry to read! I'm so happy to hear how the Lord has blessed you this week. I hope you will make lots of good friends at the new support group. It sounds wonderful.
Thanks for the offer of the template. I'm trying to make mine work first though. It is set up with different css code than yours and Jen's. I had looked at y'alls a while back when I first changed and it was so different that I couldn't easily add things from yours to mine. I may end up doing that anyway and just starting over. I'll let you know. Suzy Scribbles said she had to do a lot of scrolling to see the three column blogs on her small screen. My mom also was having trouble with all the background stuff making the font harder to see. I have a new template (simpler) ready to load after Christmas, so I think I'll leave it alone until then. It has three columns. I like that better too.
Oh JoAnn, I am praising the Lord with you. How awesome! I hope you enjoy the new fellowship with the homeschool group. Our lives are so similar. I feel everything that you are going through, b/c 2 years ago we started going to a church closer to us for the same reason, and it is a huge church. We were fortunate that a lot of our neighbors attend there, but we too, found other homeschool families there. I pray that the Lord will keep blessing you & your family. Here's a song...."If He keeps on blessin and blessin, I don't know what I'm gonna do." Something like that. LOL. That may be Lori's version.
Hurray! The Lord is good! Have a wonderful Monday. I've been so super busy this weekend that I feel like I haven't visited any of my friends in such a long time - in blogland. Now, I'm heading off to go VOTE for the HSBAwards. Ve sure to vote sometime today :) So many of our friends are running!!!
Wow! That's really wonderful JoAnn! I'm glad your going to get the opportunity to meet other homeschoolers in the area. That's one of the things I love about being near Dayton, lots of homeschoolers and lots of stuff to do if you choose to.
This blog is so I can share my journey with the Lord, my journey as a wife and mother, and my journey as a homeschool mom. I pray that you will see the Lord in my life through happy and sad times, and that this blog glorifies the Lord.
This is an award and tag free zone, thank you.
It might seem completely simple and nothing big, but this was just a huge answer to prayer. Plus, just an encouragement for me hearing from the Lord. I don't know if you ever go through times wondering and doubting if you can hear from the Lord, but I have been in that time. Just feeling like I can't hear His voice anymore. It's been hard. But Friday, the Lord just blessed me with lots of 'little' things He showed me. Some other ideas and such that were going around in my mind, and He would guide me. It was just such an encouragement from the Lord, and a true blessing, in and of itself.
He starts talking to this guy and at the end of their conversation Paul brings up that we homeschool. The man's response? "Oh, so do we." 
Can you say, Thank You Lord! And it's the exact kind of group we like, just a support group. No teaching the other kids, it's not a co-op. Not that I have anything against those, it's just not my style. I just like to get together with other mom's and fellowship while the kids play, and that's what this group does. So we are going to church tonight, instead of tomorrow morning's service, because this family goes on Saturday's. Not only do I want to meet the wife, but I want to get more information on this homeschool group. We usually go Sunday mornings, but for tonight we'll go. Actually, at another church we went on Saturday nights, and quite enjoyed it. But who knows if we'll start that now.
