Archive | February, 2013

Till We Meet Again…

By on February 8, 2013 in news & updates

I have been richly blessed by all the feedback and encouragement I have received since I wrote my announcement early in January about how God has been leading me to take a sabbatical from blogging for an undetermined amount of time. It was a great delight to re-share some of the TOP 10 posts that have been published here over the last five and half years, and to see many more comments come in from ladies blessed again by these words. I hope you were blessed and encouraged and I pray that God will continue to use these simple messy words shared here to bring glory to His name! Be assured that the blog isn’t going anywhere, so you will have full access to all the archives and recipes for your personal use. Please utilize them to your hearts content! I don’t know what the future holds for now, but I’m excited to see what is the next step in this journey that God is taking me on. I will be disabling the comments sometime this weekend. You will still be able to view old comments, we just will not be accepting new comments for the time being, as they require moderation. Thank you for understanding.

Thank you for sharing this space with me and for coming back again and again, and for sharing your life, your heart, your tears, and your encouragement. This has been an amazing experience and I have treasured every moment spent here! Till we meet again – whether here or in eternity! ;) May God richly bless and sustain you and may you strive each and every day to live your life with intentionality for His glory and the furtherance of His kingdom in whatever season of life He has you in! Know that I am here striving to be faithful right along side you though we may be worlds apart!

Pressing on to know the Lord,

Lindsay

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Can Natural Living Become an Idol?

By on February 6, 2013 in faith & womanhood, natural & green

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This post is the finale of our TOP 10 CELEBRATION here at Passionate Homemaking. This post received the most general comments over the last 5 years then any other post on the blog, so I thought it fitting to republish this article for you all.
Originally published on January 21, 2010.

Please note: I want to express my heart from the outset of this post to assure my readers that these are musings that the Lord has been working in my heart lately, and I felt compelled to share them with you. I in no way desire to condemn anyone, but my motivation in sharing is to challenge us all to guard our hearts in this matter.

I recently encountered two stories that have challenged me in the motivation and out workings of my pursuit of natural living. The first account began with a friend desiring to throw a baby shower for an expectant mother in her church. This friend was expecting her first little one. The hostess simply wanted to bless and encourage this new mother in her pursuit. When she asked for gift ideas, the new mother stated that she only wanted organic baby clothing, wooden natural toys, organic cloth diapers, and the like. Half of the guests could not afford these products. One lady missed the memo and came with a few plastic toys.

How do you think this made her hostess and guests feel?

The second account took place when I heard a couple share that they had not been tithing for several months and wanted to begin again. They had not been able to afford it. I knew that this family ate all organic and natural foods. This appeared like it could not be sacrificed.

What is more important?

I have had conversations with friends or family members on various occasions when I tried to persuade them of the health consequences or benefits of a certain product. What has resulted? Relationships have been hurt. I have left others feeling condemned or inadequate. Or at a shared meal gathering, when another mom instructs her son not to eat that food item because “it’s not food”, relationships are damaged because we exalt food over fellowship.

Do I consider myself superior to others because we have adopted a more natural lifestyle?

In the past I have skimped on hospitality because I did not want to spend the money to buy good quality food for my guests or when bringing a meal to another. I made the excuse that I couldn’t afford it. In all honesty, I wanted to keep the best of our budget for my family. This is not true generosity. True generosity takes place when I joyfully give the best that I can following the Scriptural command to do unto others as you would have them do to you (Matt. 7:12).

Where is my heart?

The apostle John’s last words in 1 John are, “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts (1 John 5:21).” These last words are significant…He wants them to be remembered.

How often do I turn a good thing into a god thing?

As Tim Keller states in Counterfeit Gods, “Most people know you can make a god out of money. Most people know you can make a god out of sex. However, anything in life can serve as an idol, a God-alternative, a counterfeit god…What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”

Natural living can become an idol when we willingly give our emotional and financial resources to achieve it.
Natural living can become an idol when we think that it can give us significance, security, safety and fulfillment.
Natural living can become an idol when we hoard the benefits and not freely offer it to others.

What is my motivation for eating healthy and living naturally? Because I have desired to be a good steward of creation and for the health and wholeness of our family.

Can preserving the safety of my family become an idol in my life? Yes!

When I give my money first towards the purchase of good healthy food prior to giving it back to the Lord in my worship of tithe, natural living has gone too far. When I am more concerned about the safety of my family to the extent that I sacrifice relationships, the service of my brothers and sisters, than natural living has become an idol.

Eating healthy will not guarantee my family a more peaceful longer life. It will not add a single day to my life than God has already determined. Only God knows the number of my days. (Psalms 139:16) He calls me to be faithful to care for my physical body, and this includes being wise in what I put into my body, knowing that it will affect my ability to serve the Lord; but when I raise that to a god-level, it is no longer a good thing. My security must only be found in Christ. He controls my family’s health and wellness.

Eating healthy and living naturally does not make me any more honorable in God’s eyes than any other. We are all in equal standing before Him.

Our first fruit of income should always go to tithe and not food. (Lev. 23:10; Numbers 28:26). Where your money is, there your heart will be also. (Matt. 6:19-21) If I put more money towards my health and wholeness before God and giving unto others, than that is where my treasure lies. It will burn up at the end.

Unity in the body is more important than the safety of our family. (Rom. 14:1-3; Psalms 133)

God calls me to be generous, not to hoard the good stuff for myself. Am I only concerned about my health and not the well-being of my friends, family, and fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? God loves a cheerful giver. I am challenged to serve the best to my guests as I possibly can. The more you give the less hold it has on your heart. (2 Cor. 8:9)

I have seen and confess to these evidences of idolatry in my heart. Am I implying that organic food, clothing, or wooden toys are bad? In no way. It is a matter of the heart. What is my motivation? Is that a God-glorifying motivation? My challenge to you all…let’s not raise being a good steward to a god position. Let’s not make others feel guilty, discouraged, or overwhelmed because they cannot afford the natural lifestyle or only in part. It’s about relationships. Let’s keep God first, love one another, and pursue giving generously to one another as we are able. Jesus commanded in Luke 10:27 states, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.” I hope you understand my heart in communicating this message. There is no condemnation here. This is just a challenge to go further up and further in in our pursuit of Christ Jesus with me.

“Accept other believers who are weak in faith, and don’t argue with them about what they think is right or wrong. For instance, one person believes it’s all right to eat anything. But another believer with a sensitive conscience will eat only vegetables. Those who feel free to eat anything must not look down on those who don’t. And those who don’t eat certain foods must not condemn those who do, for God has accepted them.” - Romans 14:1-3

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Redeeming Childbirth Giveaway!

By on February 4, 2013 in bellies & babies, news & updates

Screen Shot 2013-02-03 at 4.00.54 PMRedeeming Childbirth is a powerful new book by a long time friend and sweet sister in the Lord, Angie Tolpin. I have watched and taken part in this journey that Angie has taken in writing this book over the last year and I am so blessed to see the heart and love that she has poured out into this book. This book is a fresh new call to invite the presence of God into this intimate and beautiful process of childbirth. It is a challenge to let go of the debates, comparisons, and disunity among Christian women on the subject of childbirth how’s and where’s, and instead, fully embrace the beautiful design that God has for you, and realizing that He is the sustainer, deliverer, and only one that can truly support and carry us through, and ultimately redeem this process of childbirth.

He designed childbirth, its challenges, its pains, its processes, and He calls us to see the beauty and magnitude of how we can display and magnify His glory through every step of the journey. God desires to use it to draw our hearts more deeply into His presence and to prune and refine our character in ways that no other life experience can compare with. This book is full of biblical encouragement in preparing for childbirth and beyond, but also chock full of practical encouragement, from personal testimonies, making the birthing room a place of worship and Scripture meditation, understanding God’s true design in pain, dealing with fear, redeeming emergency situations, help for bed-rest situations, and so much more. She offers tons more free downloadable resources through her website, Redeeming Childbirth.

Here are some of my favorite quotes:

“It is not where the baby is born that marks a birth as redeemed. It is the act of surrendering our agendas to The Lord, seeking His will for our childbirth, and then experiencing His presence working in us, through us, and around us that makes it a redemptive milestone in one’s life.”

“…Once you choose to surrender fully under the headship of Christ, you begin living in the freedom of the grace that Jesus brings. You begin to view pain, not as a burden or a curse, but as beautiful. It is a beautiful pain because of the spiritual, mental, and emotional growth you will experience as you embrace it, in Christ who strengthens you.”

“Jesus is our deliverer in birth. He brings forth life. He chooses when that baby will be born; we know not the hour, only He does. He is the one we can choose to transfer our pain to, to let Him take it and carry us.”

There is so much hope in this book! I highly recommend it and believe passionately that every pregnant mother, and in fact, every woman of God, young and old, should read this book and begin to change our culture tide from women who only complain of the pains of pregnancy and spreading fear from horrible birth tales into a generation of women that choose instead to invite God in and proclaim how God met and redeemed them in childbirth in such a way that God is mightily glorified! Let us let go of our agendas and instead proclaim the excellencies of God’s amazing grace every step of the way. The birth room and our birth stories can be a powerful place and opportunity to be a shining light in a dark world! Who knows what God can do? Let’s not put Him into a box.

This book is available on Amazon for just $15, or through kindle for $6. Please order your copy today here.

For further encouragement and resources, check out the Redeeming Childbirth facebook page.

Thanks to Angie, we are giving away one copy today of Redeeming Childbirth to one beautiful woman!

 TO ENTER:

1. Visit Angie’s website, Redeeming Childbirth, and check out the vision for this book and the awesome resources she has available for you. Come back and share in a comment below why you would like to read this book.

Giveaway Closed.

AND THE WINNER IS…

Sarah O. (hitchedathenry@….): “I would LOVE to win this book. I am 27 weeks pregnant with our fourth child today. Even after all of these years, I struggle with such fear and feeligs of insecurity about labor and delivery. I have a feeling this book would be a huge encouragement to my heart.” 

I pray this book would be a great blessing to you Sarah! Congrats!

No purchase necessary to enter this giveaway.
Limited to US partipants only. 
Email subscribers: You must click through to this original post and leave a comment on the website in order to be entered in this giveaway. 

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Preparing My Heart for Motherhood

By on February 1, 2013 in bellies & babies, faith & womanhood

Originally published on July 18, 2011. Republished in light of our top 10 celebration on PH!

With each new little one that the Lord chose to bless us with, there is a certain amount of preparation and pruning that my heart must go through before being in a place to welcome them with open hands. I honestly go through serious withdraws as the last few weeks of pregnancy linger over me. Thoughts such as, “What am I doing? Am I ready for this? Number 3? Ahh!” Can I honestly be the godly joy-filled mother that I desire to be? Can I embrace this child with a heart of love and gratitude? How can I turn my eyes from the reality of the work ahead of me and truly embrace the change?

Take a Retreat.

I have found taking a personal retreat prior to having a new little one to be an invaluable exercise towards preparing my heart for this new stage in my journey of motherhood. Get away, spend time with the Lord, read His word, and pray. Pray for grace. I must acknowledge that this task is certainly beyond my ability. I cannot be a good mother on my own strength. I will stumble and fall…time and time again. I need to let go find grace in His arms.

Meditate on the Blessing of Children.

Jesus loved children. He welcomed them. He embraced them. (Matthew 18:2-6; Mark 9:37; Matthew 19:13-15). He promised in His word that they are a blessing, a heritage, a reward. They are His generous legacy chosen to be passed down through us. Children are a weapon – a tool entrusted into our hands to be prepared to wage war in the enemies camp. With the influence and power of God’s gift of children, no one can stand against us! (Psalms 127:3; Deut. 28:4).

Embrace the Change.

I believe it is important to realize and acknowledge that motherhood is hard work. It is work. And yet it is beautiful work. When God designed work back in the Garden, He designed that it was good. Work is a good thing. I like how Timothy Keller defines work as the art of bringing together the raw materials and forming it into something that flourishes, something that brings life to those around you. I love that! So for me as a mother, my work is the art of bringing together the raw materials in my home, food, children’s hearts and character, their body’s, and working them carefully, nuturingly, beautifully, so that my children, my husband, our home, and those God sends into our lives might truly flourish.

I need to embrace the fact that God’s grace is sufficient for the change, the tireless nights, the repeated needs and demands around me. His grace is mine! It has been fashioned for me before time began. It’s new every morning. The process of mothering is a sanctifying work. Change stretches and grows us drawing us nearer to our Lord. God is working in and through to for His good pleasure. And He promises to never leave or forsake you.

So recognize that it will be work, chose to embrace it, and the Lord will cause you to flourish. This is my work. Remember that this work is your worship.

Make a Thankfulness List.

Why not make a list of simple truths and reminders that you could post near your bed as gentle reminders for those late night feedings. They could be verses that relate specifically to you or to your baby. You are beautiful (I am fearfully and wonderfully made). You are loved! (You are loved with an everlasting love).

Passing on the Torch.

Recognize the high calling and mission you are about to embark on.

Psalms 78:1-7 gives us this commission:

O my people, hear my teaching;
listen to the words of my mouth.…

We will not hide them from their children;
we will tell the next generation
the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,
his power, and the wonders he has done...
which he commanded our forefathers
to teach their children,

so the next generation would know them,
even the children yet to be born,
and they in turn would tell their children.
Then they would put their trust in God
and would not forget his deeds
but would keep his commands.

That is a beautiful calling!

Read a good book.

Before each birth, I try to read a good inspiring read about the calling of motherhood. Currently, I am reading A Mother’s Heart by Jean Fleming, and it has been so refreshing to my soul. If you cannot get to a book or desire something in addition to, be refreshed by Rachel Jankovic’s articles on Motherhood: Motherhood is a Calling and Motherhood as a Mission Field. Check out my list of favorite reads on motherhood for further recommendations.

Pray for your Baby.

It’s never too early to start praying for your baby. Oh, I forget this every day. So today, I am sitting here praying for this new little life in my womb. I am praying for a particular life verse or life hymn that might be a strong reminder for them through the thick and thin of life. We have chosen a life hymn for each of our children in the past and this serves as a gentle reminder to continue to sing these hymns over them. I am also re-printing out this helpful free 31 Days of Prayer for Your Children.

So my heart is in a state of rest in this moment as my soul is prepared for this new little life. I will chose to see the beauty and embrace it wholeheartedly, as this is the work assigned to me! It is a beautiful work and His strengthen is mine for each step of the way.

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