For every Mom :)

Early this morning I received a text message from my mother on her break at work that said, "Happy MOTHER's day baby....I think you are a Wonderful Mother....I know you will do better than I did....Love you with ALL my Heart....and then some." There was something so special about receiving a text from my mom on my second mother's day ever, but at the same time I was saddened that she said the words, "I know you will do better than I did."

I saw a quote one time that read, 

“There's no way to be a perfect mother, but a million ways to be a good one.”

How true! There is NO PERFECT MOTHER! But there is a perfect God! 

This mother's day if you are finding yourself looking back at your motherhood journey whether it's been years or just a few months, and you're thinking there were things you know now that you wish you would've done, or not done, or opportunities you missed out on. Maybe things you should've said, but didn't, or things you said and shouldn't. Those times you should of been there. Tears you should of been the one to catch. Maybe there were those days when you felt like you were too hard, too stressed out, too emotional, too pushy, too overbearing, and too much of an annoyance to your kids. Or the times where you felt like you didn't pray over enough, laugh enough, talk enough, celebrate enough, or have fun enough with your kids. Maybe there were times you were late, and there were times you forgot. Or maybe you just flat out felt like you failed at being a mom miserably. Well...I have some good news!

THIS MOTHER'S DAY....give the best gift to yourself any mother can give......GRACE.

There is NO PERFECT MOM....there is only a perfect God. Rest in that! Rest in His love, perfection, grace and care. Forgive yourself...and give yourself Grace...and think about all the million of ways you  were  are a good mom!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

No to GMO!! My conversion.

What do I feed my toddler for breakfast this morning? I ask myself this question as I stand at our pantry door staring at shelves that have lied to me and my family. These shelves are filled with some of my favorite foods that I grew up on, that I sincerely enjoyed eating and couldn't wait to pass on the joy of these foods to my kids one day that my parent's fed me and my brother growing up. I am also mad that they have lied to my parents. I stare at nothing but tainted love. It's like that feeling you get when you find out that your best friend or someone you have trusted, and loved has been completely fake your whole friendship, and lying to you because of an agenda they were after. "Your sick, grossed out, mad, angry, frustrated, but still have tons of questions." This has been an almost 29 year fake friendship with food, even food I thought was healthy to me and my family. It has lied to me. I'm done!

Two days ago....

...I sat at my computer and saw a news feed pop up (I don't even think this person is on my friends list) asking families, "how much do they spend on groceries a week?" I was seriously appalled at the fact that people were commenting back they were spending $250-$300 a week. Some were even higher than that. Other's were saying they had no idea they just a lot $1000 a month for food. I kept reading through the comments about this all natural, organic, non gmo (genetically modified organism) lifestyle and I'm like seriously you guys...come on! It's just food. Eat right, make healthier food choices etc. After thinking that, and literally picking my jaw up off the floor at the same time I took to my fb page to ask,"what the deal is with all this all natural, organic, non-gmo lifestyle?" This lifestyle has people getting second jobs so they can afford to shop all natural, or sell their home and move to an area with a ton of land to do their own farming, or build a garden out in their backyard or do some radical sweep of their whole house and throw out everything that is deem to be "poison". That's cray, cray! I thought..."that's radical, extremist stuff!" People on my page we're commenting left and right, and I honestly loved what they had to say, I just was still not 100% sold. I kept thinking, it's just the latest trend, the newest fad to be "organic". It will all pass over in another year or two and then on to the next fad in dieting, or food craze. Ultimately, "ain't nobody got time for that!"

Now this was 2 days ago.

Today, I'm staring at my pantry and as I'm getting more and more mad at Monsanto (I'll explain who that is in a moment), and their "agenda" and the crap they are doing to Farmers, and my family table, and my kids I decided to grab the one box that I think might be the safest for my son to ingest which is, "Cheerios". That's sad.

Here I have been feeding my children items I think that are healthy because of portion sizes, or because it says No High Fructose Corn Syrup, or because it says natural ingredients, but I miss read the fine print that says, "with artificial flavors". We cut back a few month's ago on buying frozen Stouffer's dinners when my hubbies blood pressure shot up, and the amount of bloating on us both because of excessive sodium levels. I thought that was an awesome health food choice! Yay! When we heard about processed foods a while back and how unhealthy they are, we tried to limit them and switched to Lean Cuisines for a bit, and did cut out frozen pizzas, and I always encourage fresh veggies and fruit at every meal time. But, these veggies and fruit in our local super markets (unless its organic) is covered with pesticides, some with herbicides......straight up poison. Sickening! Some of the food ingredients we allow in our country are banned in other countries! Why?!?

A Lot of people have been asking me over last couple days, "what does GMO stand for?"

 "Genetically Modified Organism. These are plant or meat products that have had their DNA artificially altered by genes from other plants, animals, viruses, or bacteria, in order to produce foreign compounds in that food. These genetic alterations occur in a laboratory and are not found in nature. This technology is also called “gene technology,” “recombinant DNA technology,” or “genetic engineering.”

Basically, it's Fake food.

One of the replies I made on my fb post to a friend a couple days ago was, "maybe one day I'll come join you mom's on the other side of the "all natural" fence," as I kind of chuckled to myself.

This was just 2 days ago.

Today I feel like Saul Paul on the road to Damascus when he had his conversion. He was literally persecuting the Christians just before his divine encounter with the Lord. He was this huge sold out Pharisee, and a merciless persecutor of the Church. I feel like that is how I have been with all this "organic, all natural lifestyle" to my friends and family. I AM SORRY! I want to run not walk over to your side of the fence!

I stayed up majority of the night researching one of the companies, "Monsanto" that is the culprit of all this poison. They are evil, and they have an agenda and they are a powerhouse that seems they can not be overthrown. So it is up to us to take action of our pantries and refrigerators, where we shop, our food tables, what we ingest, and what we feed our families,  It is up to us to educate ourselves, read labels, know where specific ingredients come from...because they definitely will not do it for us.

It's crazy how all of this has came about just this past week that our Pastor preached on "Physical Transformation" from the study we are doing at church and in our lifegroups. Between that, the fb post, the older gentlemen I met at a volunteer drive last night, and I know prayers from friends, is just what I needed to get myself as well as my families physical health's on the right track, and be accountable to. Even when I thought I was doing just that this whole time.  I know this new conversion will take time to adjust, and to learn and to educate myself along the way. It will not be overnight that we completely change every single little eating habit that we have ever made. But, at least its a step in right direction.

If you like me, are interested, but skeptical and don't know where to start...start by watching this oscar winning documentary called Food Inc on Netflix. Hubby and I were up till 1am last night watching it. If you have not seen it I sincerely encourage you to do so! It explains so much, and will make you disgusted with so much, but grab some tissues.


I'm going to clean out my pantry now.


Thank you for the prayers and all the gmo, natural, organic info friends! 




*ps. This is a serious silent holocaust going on. The poison in these foods are slowly killing us all. We jokingly say all the time, "don't drink the koolaid", but we already are without knowing.

YOU OWE ME!!

So our church just started this 50 day Transformation study. A 50 day spiritual, physical, mental, vocational, financial transformation. This past Sunday we kicked off the study with our Pastor preaching on Luke chapter 15. The Prodigal Son story. Prob one of my fave parables Jesus ever taught on because it hits home on so many levels! I looked up the term "prodigal" in the dictionary, just to get a little bit better understanding of the term, and it is defined as,"someone who wastefully or recklessly spends his money."

But, let's be honest here...we have all in someway shape or form been some what of a prodigal employee, wife, husband, child, and friend. Who wastes their time on petty things....like worry. Who has been reckless in their relationships, or has loved recklessly those people who we know are just not good for us, and I know I can admit that I have been wasteful with my talents and gifts, keeping them to myself when I could of been using them to bless others. I could go on, and on...but truth is we all have had/now have an area where we can relate to the prodigal son.

With that being said, our Pastor pointed out two things this past Sunday while preaching on that parable that Jesus taught. They keep echoing in my heart, and I keep processing it over and over in my brain this week. "Entitled says, "You owe me! Entrusted says: "I owe you." The prodigal son was completely reckless and wasteful with his inheritance that he felt so entitled to...not entrusted with.

I tell you. This study is only in day 4 well...going on day 5, and we have 45 more days left. God is already SHOWING UP. In our life group on Wednesday night we all agreed that this study is kind of like a 12 step program. The first step is you have to "Admit", and I admit I am in dire need of Transformation.

One area in particular I know is my ATTITUDE.

It need's a HUGE transformation.

God has shown me that I have walked around with this entitled attitude, just like the prodigal son. I think overtime sometimes we as, believers, can become so complacent in our walks, next thing you know your quenching the spirit...and you start being reckless in your relationship with God.

My attitude has been so reckless.

I love God, I love loving on His people, I enjoy so much serving Him and others, I love pouring His truth into others, and earnestly seeking and studying His word, but along the way doing all those things I have without even realizing it have begun to build up this attitude of "God, You owe me!" Ouch!

"God, I'll love on that person that I don't want to, but YOU OWE ME!"
"God, I'll forgive that person, but YOU OWE ME!"
"God, I'll stretch myself and give my money, BUT YOU OWE ME!"
"God, I'll serve in this specific ministry, BUT YOU OWE ME!"
"God, I'll befriend her/him, BUT YOU OWE ME!"

What?!?!? Truth is...we do not owe God a darn thing. Who exactly do we think we are? We are broken, silly little people...who are in desperate need of a Saviour's love, forgiveness, mercy and grace DAILY. Yes we are capable of GREAT, and absolutely unbelievably AMAZING things, but our abilities, money, talents, gift, blessings, and even people that are placed in our lives are all entrusted to us and given to us by our CREATOR, we are not entitled to them.

Our attitudes should look something like this...

"God, I'll love on that person, because "I owe you, and love you and your word says to love your people."
"God, I'll forgive that person, because "I owe you, for you have so graciously forgiven me."
"God, I'll stretch myself and give my money, because "I owe you, and your word says that if we test you in this area, you will open the flood gates of heaven and pour out blessings amongst us."
"God, I'll serve in this specific ministry, because, "I owe you, for my special gifts, talents and unique abilities you have blessed me with are not entitled to me...they are entrusted to me and I will use them to serve others."
"God, I'll befriend that person, because "I owe you, and Jesus was hated by many, but a friend to all."

I encourage you...if this sounds like you, as it did me...please do this 50 days Transformation journey with us. Like our Pastor said before..."you don't have to join our church, get called out, raise your right hand, come down front, or even ever come back to our church after these 45 days are up."...lol something like that. Just come and do this one journey with us and watch God move in real and tangible ways in our hearts, homes and lives.

Real Transformation starts from the inside out....


I am so ready for God to do just that....are you?