I Am Crowned!

By Nancy Campbell
http://aboverubies.org


I AM CROWNED!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits:
who forgives all your iniquities,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from destruction,
who crowns you with loving kindness
and tender mercies.” (Psalm 103:1-4).

What a loving, tender-hearted and compassionate God we have.
Every day He crowns me with loving kindnesses. Every day He
crowns you with loving kindnesses.

Do I hear you say, “When was the last time God crowned me?”
Stop and think about it for a moment. God crowns you with His
loving kindnesses through people around you. When your baby
or your little child smiles at you, in fact when anyone smiles at
you, you are crowned with God’s loving kindness. Every time
your husband embraces you, you receive another one of God’s
loving kindnesses. Every time he helps you with the dishes or
bathes the children, it is God’s blessing to you. When someone
says an encouraging word to you, it is God’s loving kindness to
you. He has not forgotten about you. You are graven on the palms
of His hands. He has forgiven your sins. He has healed you many
times.

When you sit down at your table and eat the bountiful food God
daily provides for you, it is His loving kindness to you. When
you reap the harvest from the garden you have planted, it is His
loving kindness. When you look up at the clouds and are
reminded of His faithfulness, you are crowned. You look at the
mountains, the ocean, the undulating hills and trees and you are
blessed that He has given you all these things to freely enjoy.
And you don’t have to pay a cent. The world is yours to enjoy, no
matter how little money you have in your pocket!

Start looking for God’s loving kindnesses. They are all around
you. They are happening to you throughout the day. Instead of
focusing on your problems and disappointments, look out for
God’s blessings. Learn to be aware of them. Do not forget one of
His benefits. Not one! Gratefully thank the Lord for every tiny
one. I am starting to do this more and more. In fact, when I read
this Scripture about being crowned I was very convicted. I
realized that I had been taking God’s blessings for granted. Now
I seek to thank the Lord for crowning me every time I receive a
blessing-a hug, a smile, a word of encouragement, the blessing
of children around me and the joy they give with their antics and
funny things they say. The blessings of God’s creation-the
flowers, the birds, the butterflies and the beautiful colors of the
fall which I am beholding as I look out of my window now. It
makes such a difference to your life when you become grateful
for every little crowning from the Lord.

Because God is crowning me through His people (and maybe
even those who are not His people), am I letting Him use me to
be his vehicle through which he can crown others? This is a
challenge for us, isn’t it?

Recently my daughter, Serene faced a difficult trial, a little more
difficult because her husband was overseas fulfilling a contract
with the military. In the middle of being weighed down by the
problem, her car ran out of gas in the middle of a busy lane of
traffic. She had all the children in the car and the car wouldn’t
budge another inch! She put on her blinkers and decided to call
the police, but her phone suddenly went dead! She was stuck!
She cried out to the Lord. He nudged her to try the car again.
Miraculously it started and she managed, weaving through
traffic, to get to the side of the road. She was still stranded, but
then God showed her His loving kindness. People stopped
their cars to help her. She had more help than she could use.
Some were people she would normally be scared to talk to.

One big burly guy with tattoos all over him drove to a service
station and bought gas for her and filled up her car. She knew
God was sending His angels to her. Not only did she get gas
for her car, but the loving kindness of strangers and this big,
scary tattooed “angel” caused Serene to feel God’s loving
kindness pouring all over her. She forgot all her problems and
filled the van with praises the rest of her journey.

We can be used by the Lord to crown our husband, our children
and many others with the loving kindness of the Lord. Let’s be
on the offensive to give love-hugs, smiles, affirmation,
encouragement and practical help wherever needed. What a
blessing to be the instrument of God’s loving kindness.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:
“Thank you, dear Father, for constantly crowning me with your
loving kindnesses. Help me to be aware of them and full of
gratefulness to you. And please anoint me to be a messenger of
your loving kindnesses to others around me. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I will not forget a single blessing!

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Happy Praise-Giving!

Happy Praise-Giving!

By Wendy Lanier,
Guest Writer

CBN.com – With Thanksgiving approaching at an alarming rate, I’ve been giving some thought to the whole idea of giving thanks. The Pilgrims weren’t the first to suggest it. The Scriptures have always made it clear we are to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1Thessalonians 5:18). Obviously, this was written long before there was a Pilgrim in sight. If it’s God’s will for us to give thanks, there must be more to it than we might first suspect.

At first glance, giving thanks is simply the opposite of being ungrateful. In general, our culture frowns on ungratefulness as being impolite. People who are not grateful, who never write thank you notes, or who fail to acknowledge the thoughtfulness of others are considered rude. Being ungrateful just isn’t done in polite society. Being referred to as “ungrateful” is definitely not a compliment, which means the opposite (being grateful) is considered a good thing in most circles.

But could it be there is more to giving thanks than just being polite? If being thankful is God’s will, as the Scriptures tell us, why is this so? Could it be our Creator and Master Designer knows something about what makes us tick that we don’t fully understand ourselves?

In the book of Galatians, we find a list of attributes known as the fruits of the Spirit. It’s worth pointing out—fruit can be cultivated. Maybe the reason it is God’s will for us to give thanks is because He knows that giving thanks stimulates the growth of fruit. Among those is the fruit of joy! Ultimately, giving thanks leads us to joy. It makes us happy. And who doesn’t want to be happy?

On a recent hiatus from work trying to stave off a cold, I spent part of my day flipping through magazines. In one of them I came across a health article about this very topic—happiness. In it the author suggested a number of tips for promoting the healthy state of being happy. The important thing, the article maintained, is to concentrate on the main ingredients of happiness, such as solid relationships, gratitude, and “that magical thing called hope.”

First, I was struck by the idea hope could be considered “magical.” I’m not sure why it’s so magical, unless of course you don’t know where your hope lies.

I also found it interesting the author was able to identify gratitude as an ingredient for happiness. It seems that secular psychiatrists are figuring out what God has known all along. Grateful people are healthier people. Their blood pressure is lower, their cholesterol is better, they suffer fewer heart attacks, and they just generally feel better than people who spend all their time griping and complaining instead of counting their blessings.

For us as believers who count our blessings and “name(s) them one by one” as the old song says, it follows that our thanksgiving will turn to praise. As we recognize what God has done for us and give Him thanks, we are filled with awe for who He is and His exceeding greatness. When we exalt and honor Him, our praises rise to Him as a sweet smelling offering.

Praise—true praise—has a way of getting God’s attention. There’s power in that. Our God inhabits the praises of His people. When we praise Him, it’s as though He bends down a little closer and says, “Ah, I like that. Bless your heart. Now what can I do for you, child? How can I bless YOU?”

Getting God’s attention is a good thing—for us. Not so good for the enemy. For this reason he has a vested interest in keeping us from focusing on our blessings. His ploy is to keep us mired in the muck of our circumstances. Life is truly like a bed of roses. The roses are there, but so are the thorns and the fertilizer. The trick is to stay focused on the roses.

Sometimes when the conditions I’m in are crummy, I find myself gritting my teeth and announcing Psalm 34:1: I WILL bless the Lord at all times. His praise WILL continually be in my mouth. When I’m tempted to fall into despair or allow the weight of my circumstances to crush me, I say it. I WILL. I CHOOSE to praise the God of all creation in spite of my circumstances.

No matter what happens, God is good. I give thanks because He is good. I choose to acknowledge Him for His excellent greatness. I praise Him for everything—answered prayers, a beautiful day, a good parking place, a way out of the circumstances (even if I don’t see one), people I love, and so on.

And then a funny thing happens. I find I am no longer gritting my teeth. My smile is no longer forced. From deep down in my spirit something begins to bubble up—something that goes beyond just happiness. JOY! Happiness is dependent on circumstances, but joy comes to those who know there is nothing magical about hope. Joy is the reward of those whose faith and hope is in Jesus Christ. His joy becomes my strength (Nehemiah 8:10) and I can face whatever comes my way with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.

Wendy Lanier, author, teacher, and speaker, is a former science teacher who loves sharing the timeless truth of God’s Word through the spoken and written word.

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This goes right along with the theme that God has been trying to impress upon me – I MUST give thanks! In the midst of the most trying circumstances, He wants me to not be anxious but to give thanks. I am to make my requests known to Him and then give thanks. There’s no room for anxiety or depression. It is real faith when we do this in the midst of a looming threat to our safety or our security. I know He will answer my prayers. I am to start thanking Him for them even before I see the answers. I must choose to praise Him and thank Him.

Philippians 4:6 strikes again! “Be anxious for nothing. But in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7) And the peace of God, which surpasses understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

I thought it was interesting that she brought out the fact that secular psychologists consider hope “magical” because they don’t know where their hope lies. Hope needs to be tied with faith in the only One who can change our circumstances. Hope helps us to hang on until our faith becomes sight.

What Jesus Thinks About You

I just had to share this today. I know that God really feels this way about us because He told me personally. He answered me when I called and told me that He delights in me.

I’m still trying to walk in that knowledge daily. Changing your mindset can be a long process. But He keeps telling me over and over again through many different avenues – such as this word from David Wilkerson – that He delights in me and I am precious to Him.

David Wilkerson Today

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2010

THE KEY TO ALL DELIVERANCE

The Holy Spirit gave David a revelation that is the key to all deliverance. David could say, “The reason God delivered me from all my enemies—from all my sorrows and the powers of hell—is because I am precious to him. My God delights in me!”

“He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me (Psalm 18:19). Do you need deliverance? From lust, temptation or trial? From a problem that’s mental, spiritual, emotional or physical? The key to your victory is in this verse above. God delights in you! You are precious to him!

In Song of Solomon, the Lord says of his bride, “How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!” (Song of Solomon 7:6). Three of the Hebrew words in this verse are synonymous: fair means precious; pleasant indicates pleasure; and delights. These words describe Jesus’s thoughts toward his bride as he beholds her. He looks at her and says, “How beautiful, sweet and delightful you are. You are precious to me, O love.”

In turn, the bride boasts, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward
me” (7:10). The meaning here is: He runs after me with delight. He chases me because I am so precious to him.

These same thoughts are found throughout the Psalms. “The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy” (Psalm 147:11). “The Lord takes pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation” (149:4).

Read this devotion online: http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/devotions/2010/the-key-to-all-deliverance

We Get to Stay in Our House!

Last weekend, Gary and I went away for our anniversary. I was so ready to just get away by ourselves. I was hoping to wean Abby during this time away from her. I made all the plans for a get-away in a cabin by a lake. It was going to be a nice, romantic trip, but I also wanted to spend time with the Lord and ask Him what we were supposed to do about this house situation.

I was hoping that we would pray together and talk to each other and just enjoy the quiet and beauty of nature together. We haven’t been away from all of the kids for about 8 years now. We used to go away for our anniversary every year. Even then, we had a nursing baby with us many times.

As the time came nearer to leave, I started missing the kids. I hadn’t even left yet, but I was already missing them! I told them that I was going to have a hard time with this. The older kids said to go have fun and not worry about a thing. They had a new spaghetti recipe they were anxious to try – barbecue spaghetti with meatballs. They told me that they would watch the babies like hawks. I was really concerned about that part of the whole thing. Would they really watch my babies well enough?

We took off for the lake that night. Earlier in the day, Gary had been talking about just going ahead and signing the year lease on the house. That seemed to be all they cared about. We had just been trying to be honest, but that didn’t seem to be acceptable to them. We talked about things on the way to the lake. We were both relaxed and looking forward to our time together. I was a little bit nervous about the kids, but I knew they would be all right and God would take care of them.

We got to the cabin and tried to turn up the heat because it was really cold in there. The thermostat said it was 50 degrees. Gary tried to set it higher, but it was stuck on 45 degrees. It wouldn’t change no matter what he did to it. There was a gas-log fireplace, so he tried to turn that on. There was a little bit of a flame, but it wasn’t putting out any heat, and there was no way to turn that up, either.

I found an emergency number on the paper they left for us on the counter. It was late, so there was nobody in the office. I called the number four times, but we never got a call back.

We finally left to go back home. We were disappointed, but we were also kind of relieved to be going back to the kids. On the way home, we felt like the Lord was really telling us to go ahead and sign the year lease. We both felt a peace about it.

So the next day, we read the lease and signed it and copied it and took it to the office of the rental management group. A couple days later somebody came and took the sign out of our yard. (The first people who had wanted to rent the house must have backed out when they saw that we really weren’t going to leave until we had somewhere to go. So the rental management group had come out and put a sign in our yard again. I suppose they would have tried to let people go through our house again to look at it.) But now we don’t have to worry about any of that any more.

I am so relieved. I’m thankful that God has taken that pressure away from us. I don’t know what His plans are for when we are to move somewhere else or where we are to go, but I’m thankful that I don’t have a sign in my yard or people threatening to take us to court any more!

Previous to all of these events, Gary wrote a letter to the owners and explained to them that his job situation was more secure than he had thought and asked them to at least let us stay in the house through December. We never heard from them, but when the rental management group called to tell them we had signed the year lease, maybe his letter influenced them to go ahead and let us stay.

Moving somewhere else would have been such a hardship. It’s hard for us to find a house in this area because of occupancy rules. They won’t allow more than two people per bedroom. That means we would have to rent a 6-bedroom house. We haven’t even found a 6-bedroom house to look at! We would love to have 6 bedrooms, but there aren’t many houses around that have that many bedrooms- especially in our price range. We make 4 bedrooms work fine, but still it would be nice to have a couple more bedrooms.

And having had bad experiences with BOTH of the rental management groups that dominate our area, we wondered if we would be able to find a house to rent. We wouldn’t get any help from them.

But we are happy that God gave us wisdom for this situation. And we were happy to see our babies as soon as we woke up the next morning. We will still get our chance to have a get-away, but I guess it wasn’t time yet.

Some day we will have a big, beautiful house, and it will belong to us. And we will have land, too. And all of this will be behind us. We are holding on to that promise.

P.S. If you want to know more about our bad experiences with the rental management groups, I would be happy to share. Just leave a comment asking me to write a post about it.

Morgan’s Notebook – Using Notebooking in Our Homeschooling

Pages from Homeschool in the Woods Colonial Time Travelers used with our study of Early America.

From Homeschool in the Woods History Through the Ages Timeline Figures

We print these Homeschool in the Woods timeline figures in a big size and use them as notebook pages.  We do them along with our Bible reading.

Map of Israel from Knowledge Quest Maps.

We got this from Living Books Curriculum.

Also from Living Books Curriculum

This is from Barry Stebbing’s Lamb’s Book of Art

Morgan wanted to study birds so I found him some unit studies on birds.

A-Z Birds of North America for Beginning Bird Watchers by www.LightHome.net

He read lots of books for the Library Summer Reading Program.

From Virginia Donahue at Proverbs 22:6 Academy

He asked a question about the water cycle, so I found this page from abcteach.com for him.

He wanted to study Rocks and Minerals, so I found this activity at Home School Launch. The Earth’s Structure printable is here.

Declaration of Independence copywork from Lynda Ackert at Christian Home School Hub

Some of these materials were free. The timeline figures from Homeschool in the Woods I bought. I also bought the book of historical maps from Knowledge Quest. Many of these materials were freebies from CurrClick.com. Lynda Ackert makes great freebies, too. Homeschool Launch has free stuff. Lots of sites have free printables. You can do a search for printables and find lots. Enchanted Learning has some nice ones, but there is a yearly fee. Homeschool Share has free stuff.

It is very easy to use unit studies and notebooking as your curriculum. And very affordable!