Radical Faith = Radical Commitments

I have recently read the book Radical by David Platt. Our entire church read the book along with a six-week sermon and small group series. To say that it has changed my life is an understatement. It has changed they way that I look at everything in life.

Two weeks ago my family made five commitments.

1. Read through the entire Word.
This is probably the commitment that scared me the most. My four children make it difficult to spend any length of time in a 'quiet time'. I've found a couple of devotional books designed specifically for moms with small children and they were working for me...but now I've just made the commitment to read the entire bible in a year...that's about five chapters a day. Eleven days into it now, I'm loving it. My children interrupt some days more than others, but it's working.

2. Pray for the entire World.
We're doing this through Operation World. I love reading about specific things that I can pray for each country. The girls are also starting to ask each night at bedtime, "Mama, what country are we praying for today?"

3. Sacrifice our money for a specific purpose.
This is the one that we had to really brainstorm about. The word "sacrifice" kept giving me trouble. We can decide to give a certain about of money to a number of great charities, but where's the sacrifice. You know....the bills are paid for the month, this much is left over, so let's give it here. Not really a sacrifice. So we decided to first, not go grocery shopping for one week each month. It's amazing how many suppers and lunches you can make when you think you have no food in the house. We then chose a Compassion child to sponsor. As we thank Jesus for our (sometimes interesting combination) supper each night that week, we pray for Ama and her family who might be going to bed hungry. The money we would have spent on groceries goes to our sponsor child and family. This week was our first week to try this....It's Thursday now, and I can definitely say that the cupboards are getting quite bare, but none of us are hungry. And we've spent the entire week praying, talking, and thinking about a seven year old girl in Ghana.

4. Spend time in another context.
We committed to spend one week, 2% of our time in Gospel ministry outside of Middle Tennessee. I'm somewhat limited to where and when I can go since I'll be nursing a baby for the next year, but I'm really excited that my husband will get to go anywhere. He could go to Africa, or Belgium, or Mexico, or even just Mississippi or Seattle...but I'm excited to see how God is going to change the other 98% of our time because of this 2%.

5. Commit my life to a multiplying community.
We're very excited to join forces with Life Point Church to serve God and change our community.

I'm so excited to see what God teaches up through these commitments and what other commitments he shows us along the way.

So if you've not read David Platt's Radical, I highly recommend it, but just be ready for your world to be ROCKED!

Multiplication

This blog post is beautiful for this weary mama. Check out the rest of Jenni's blog too, she's amazing.

Big Truths for Little Kids works for me.

I wrote about this here just the other day, but I thought I'd post about it here too.

We've just started using a fabulous new book at our house. It's called 'Big Truths for Little Kids' by Susan and Richie Hunt.

I love the idea of a methodized (catechism) way of teaching my children about our beliefs, but don't want it to be something that they just memorize and spit back by rote.

I want my girls to have a Christian worldview...to know that the way we live is because of how we believe.

This book teaches catechism questions (Who made you? God. What else did God make? God made all things. Why did God make you and all things? For His glory. etc....), but then has a practical story related to the questions. It really does a great job of translating the learning of facts to a worldview.

The target age for this book is probably 4-7, but Emily (2) loves it and I really think it could be used effectively up to like 9 or 10 as well.

And it is also TOO cute to hear Becca (17 months old) say "Ga" when you ask her "Who made you?".

For more Works for me Wednesday, go here.

Not Forgotten

Oh ya, I do still have a blog.

My dad asked last night why I hadn't posted in a while.....blame it on Potter. I am really into the last book and can't wait to go back and read the entire series back to back.

I also went here this weekend and got some really funky fun new yarn and two new pattern books too. An entire hour all to myself to browse and feel yarn, ogle over the projects knitted up, and read through about a dozen pattern books......HEAVEN! Well, not really but let's just say I really enjoyed it, and I came back a better mommy.

So between Harry Potter and my new knitting projects calling my name, blogging has slipped on my to do list. I will be back tomorrow though for Wordless Wednesday with some great pictures of Becca enjoying her very first ice cream cone all by herself.

Can I measure up?

So I've been thinking/reading/studying/stressing-out about the Proverbs 31 woman lately. Am I a 'virtuous woman'? Here's just a short list of her qualities....

• her husband trusts her
• early-riser
• unselfish
  
• loving wife and mother
• smart shopper
• seamstress
• gardener
• good housekeeper
• trains her children with wisdom
• her husband appreciates and praises her

And that's just a short list! Wow, that's a lot to measure up to. Do I even possess half of these traits?

I am naturally hard on myself. I compare myself to other wives, mothers, and even celebrities. And I know I'm not alone in this...most women do this same thing.

God knew that we would be critical of ourselves and knew we would seek examples to follow. Isn't it cool that he put such a detailed description of a virtuous woman in the Bible? He knows my heart, loves me so much, and thought of everything. Pretty cool!

So the thing that stresses me out though is trying to measure up. God knew we would be hard on ourselves, so why did he have to make her so perfect? It's like she's mocking me! There's no postpartum depression, frustration, fast-food getting, pretend she's asleep and doesn't hear the baby crying in the middle of the night so her husband will get up in her description. Her children don't even watch tv!

I know the Sunday School answer...read what I wrote about ten lines up. But still I'm stressed out! What do ya'll think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments (Mom, just click 'comments' on the bottom of this post and type your comment...you can click the anonymous circle and just sign your name in the 'leave your comment' section.). It's ok to say that I'm way off base and just need to relax too!