” And it came to pass, when all the people were clean passed over the Jordan, that the Lord spake unto Joshua saying,
Take you twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man,
And command ye them, saying, take you hence out of the midst of Jordan, out of the place where the priest’s feet stood firm, twelve stones, and ye shall carry them over with you, and leave them in the lodging place, where ye shall lodge this night.
That this may be a sign among you, that when your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean ye by these stones?
Then ye shall answer them, That the waters of Jordan were cut off before the the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off: and the these stones shall be for a memorial unto the children of Israel for ever.”
Joshua 4:1-3, 6 & 7
Do you ever wish that you could just remember things better? I do! Sermons, acts of God, things I read and so on! It sometimes feels like they go in one ear and out the other; I don’t like it. You know, I think God knows that we are prone to forget and so he has many times in the Bible commanded the children of Israel to build an alter, or in the case of these verses in Joshua, a memorial of twelve stones. Things that when we see them, jog our memory and make us think back to what happened. My dad recently inspired me with the thought that we too should have stones of remembrance. It is so good for me and you to look back and name the things that God has done for us and write them down so we don’t forget them so easily. Maybe it is the small things like when a friend came at a time when you needed her most, or maybe it was a big miracle, but no matter the size, God wants us to remember what he has done for us. It is so good for us and will be the biggest encouragement, when we can look back and see how God has been with us all through our lives! Build that bank of memories that we can recall when life is feeling tough. So I am just encouraging us all not to be forgetful of God’s blessings to us. Take the time to gather your stones of remembrance and I think you will find yourself full of praise for what God has done for you!
I still can hardly believe it actually happened. We went to Ireland! Damarus and I went with two of the best ladies out there and spent 6 days it that beautiful country! There were a lot of first times for me in this trip like flying, going out of country, ect. but it went very smoothly overall and God gave us so many blessing. He is the Giver of Good Gifts! So here is a little tour of Ireland through our eyes; Go if you ever get a chance!
POWERSCOURT HOUSE & GARDENS
This is one of the worlds great gardens! They have different gardens including lots of beautiful roses as you can see in some of the pictures. I have never seen so many different roses in my life! There is a beautiful trail to walk and lots of interesting plants and stone landscaping. There is also some little shops and a cafe in the house. We got our first taste of Irish scones with cream and jelly and had a cup of tea.
WATERFORD
One day we walked around Waterford, which was started by the Vikings and is the oldest town in Ireland. It really is a beautiful place! A lot of the streets were like cobblestone or brick style and flowers in planters or just wild abounded, which definitely lent charm! The doors on the shops were often just left open and so it was a very welcoming feel. We heard live music on the streets too! We ate outside at a cute little restaurant and got a cool treat at Geno’s Gelato!
KILKENNY CASTLE & HOOK HEAD LIGHTHOUSE
This was a big day! Started off with riding a car ferry across to get to the lighthouse where we then we got a tour of the inside of the lighthouse. It was very interesting! Hook Head Lighthouse is the oldest working one in the world! It is over 800 years old. Each of the lighthouses in Ireland have a different kind of light color or flash so that the boats can tell which one it is when they are out at sea. Then we went and had Fish and Chips. Their chips are french fries to us. They like to mix mayo and ketchup together and dip their chips in that or sprinkle them with malt vinegar. After that we gave ourselves a tour of the huge Kilkenny Castle. In the many stables there were shops including this cute little pottery shop, Castle Arch Pottery. We couldn’t help but buy as much as we thought we could haul home! The other pictures are just along the drive that day! So many picture perfect spots!
DUNMORE EAST CLIFF WALK
We did about a 6 mile hike one day. It was all along the cliffs and by 3 coves! It was such beauty all day! We packed a lunch and ate it on the comfort of a patch of spongy thick grass. Seriously, I never saw ground or grass like that! You could bounce up and down on a very comfortable seat. At the coves we walked in the water and found some sea glass. A very relaxing and lovely day! God held back the rain too for us! It got dark, windy and cold about half way through and we were prepared to get rained on but then the sun came out and it was gorgeous again! Thank you Jesus!
RANDOM OTHERS
And here are the others from the rest of the time. Included are an Irish breakfast (fun fact about the Irish; they only eat with a knife and fork for the main food unless it is soup; they save the spoon for dessert!) sea glass, a special time on the cliffs one evening, walking to a beach for tea, biscuits and devotions one morning and just other things that caught our attention!
I hope you enjoyed this peek into the little piece of Ireland we saw!
In part 1 of this series of posts, I acknowledged to myself and those reading the post that depression is a very real problem to many people today. I felt like that post was a little discouraging. Today I want to offer you hope! Yes, I have struggled with depression, but also, I have found freedom and healing in Jesus Christ! A quote from Uninvited by Lysa Terkeurst is this. “Running from the pain won’t help. Pretending to be fine when you aren’t won’t help. Avoiding relationships won’t help. Turn to God.”
I like to compare myself to plants. When I am depressed and discouraged, I feel like that thistle. Other times I am just on a plain. Life is neither great or terrible, kind of like a plant that isn’t blooming. But when I allow Jesus to bring truth and peace to my life, I am like a beautiful flower. Last week I stated that the main cause of depression is believing lies. I want to revisit these lies and refute them with the Truth of God’s Word.
I am not doing enough
“For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not they eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body.”
1 Corinthians 12:14-20
These verses clearly say that every person in the body of Christ has their different responsibility. As long as we are doing what Jesus wants us to do, we don’t have to worry that we aren’t doing enough. He will use us all to fulfill a much greater purpose than any one of us could do on our own.
My circumstances are bigger than God
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
Psalm 46:1
“Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:”
Jeremiah 32:17
God is so big! He created the entire world in six days, and He holds everything in place. No trial you’re facing was overlooked by Him. He knows how much you can handle.
God doesn’t love me
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
1 John 3:1
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.”
1 John 4:18
John talks about love a lot on the books he wrote. Probably the most common Bible verse is John 3:16. God proved His love for us when He came and died for us even though we were sinners who did not deserve it.
People don’t love me
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
Proverbs 17:17
“The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him. Thy father and mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.”
Proverbs 23:24-25
First of all, it doesn’t really matter what other people think of you. God loves you, and that will never change. True friends will love you at all times. Find those true friends. I know that there are a lot of people who do not have loving parents. If that is you, I’m sorry. But most people do have a parent, or parent figure who loves them.
My challenge to you is that when you are depressed, take a lot of time to study God’s Word, and see what He says about you. I have found it helpful to memorize scripture. Recently I have really been struggling with hopelessness and what feels like broken dreams. I committed to memorizing Psalm 91. This passage has become very precious to me. I quote it when I am tempted to become discouraged or when I want to satisfy my desires on wrong things. The Word of God is powerful. Satan has no hold on us when we acknowledge who God is- that He is stronger than whatever we might be facing. Another way to find healing is to share your struggle with someone. Find a trusted friend who will be able to listen and speak truth back into your life. To wrap this up, I want to tell you that God is REAL! His power is evident in so many ways. I also would love to hear what helps you all fight depression. Leave a comment or send us an email and let me know. We are all here to help each other out.
I love children, but sometimes it can be hard to know how to keep them busy. This post is a compilation of ideas of fun things to do with children.
When I worked in Baltimore, one of my responsibilities was to be the aftercare teacher. Crafts were something that kept the children busy and happy. I think I did more crafts in those three months than I’ve done in the entire rest of my life! Below I linked a few crafts made from paper. Other ideas for crafts are oragami, pipe cleaners, and slime.
Both my 10 year old brother and my 4 year old brother, as well as the children I babysit, love to play card games and board games. The games listed below are fun for both my 4 and 10 year old brothers. I have also discovered that both Spot It and Rats work well to play with children who do not understand English. My 10 year old brother can be entertained with board games such as Monopoly, and Risk for hours, although sometimes he has a hard time finding siblings who agree!
Anyone who knows me knew this was coming! Books are an amazing way to bond with children. I can get tired of reading books over and over again to my 4 year old brother, so sometimes when he asks me if I can read him some books I say that I will if I’m allowed to pick the books. There are many children’s books that I, as an adult, love to read! Here are just a few children’s books that I recommend.
Thank You, Mr. Falker
Patricia Polacco has written many amazing books. Little children love her books, and yet they have themes that interest older children and even adults. I love the art in her books!
Snoopy the Sheep
My little brother has many of the books in this series, and he loves them! These wholesome books are all about animals on a farm.
Corduroy
There are several Corduroy books, and all of them are so sweet!`
Also, sometimes the most important thing is to not find things to try to help children entertain themselves, but to instead keep them right in the midst of whatever you’re doing. My youngest brother loves to help cook, clean, feed animals, and anything else his older siblings are doing. It’s so good for children to help with work and have their own chores. It can really build a feeling that they belong in a family and are needed, as well as growing a work ethic.
Depression. This is such a sensitive topic, but it needs to be talked about. I have struggled with depression over the years, but to a mild degree compared to the many broken hurting people around me. I do not feel qualified to write a post on depression, but I pray that God can use what I write to speak truth into your heart.
During a 2015-2018 study done by the CDC, 13.2% of Americans over 18 took antidepressants within the last 30 days¹. I think I can safely say that this percentage definitely hasn’t dropped. One of the side affects of antidepressants, which is noted on many pills, is suicide. According to the World Health Organization, 800,000 people die from suicide every year². While not all these tragic deaths are linked to antidepressants, some are.
When I am feeling depressed, I just want to feel better. I want to overcome the feeling that I am covered by a heap of blankets, suffocating from everything weighing down my mind and emotions. If I can put my finger on what is causing me to feel so overwhelmed, then I will be better prepared to fight for joy. That is what we are going to talk about in this post. We’ve stated that depression is a prevalent issue in our society. Why?
There are many different ways of thinking that can lead us to depression. It also depends on personality to a degree. Some of us are more emotionally oriented, so we tend to carry weight from problems that are not ours to carry. Circumstances and people around us will influence us too. Children who were neglected or abused are more likely to struggle with depression³.
For myself, I usually experience depression because of lies that I believe. I think that most cases of depression will come back to one or more of these lies, no matter what the circumstances are. Satan wants to destroy us, and he will use literally anything to make us feel hopeless and doubt God. He tells us lies to make us feel worthless. What are these lies?
I’m not doing enough
My circumstances are bigger than God
God doesn’t love me
People don’t love me
If Satan can get us to believe these lies, he then has a grip on our lives. There is power in acknowledging why we feel depressed and discouraged. In part 2 of this post, we will explore ways to fight depression. For now, don’t dwell on depressing thoughts, but do consider why you personally may struggle with depression. Acknowledge what lies you might be believing, and take them to the Healer, Jesus Christ.
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