Freedom

God will always offend those who don't know how much He loves them.

Love covers a multitude of sins.

Love bears all things, believes all thing, hopes all things.

Love never ends.

God is love.

God. Is. Love. 

We can love money. Money cannot love us back. We can love people, but people are broken and don't always know how to love us back. We can love the earth, the earth has shown us time and again that it absolutely cannot and will not love us back.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights. With whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17

Everything good in our lives comes from a Father who loves, because He is love. I recently read a blog that centered around God and His giving. That He is a giver and not a taker. (wheregivinghappens.com) 

I pray that you seek the true nature of God. I pray that He reveals to you on a daily basis just how much love He truly desires to lavish upon you. He's not mad at you. He doesn't keep a log of how many hours a day you do or do not read your bible. He's a good daddy who wants to spend time with you. A daddy who gave so so much to make sure we had a way back to Him. He has given us free will because He wants us to choose to love Him. We make messes with our free will. But the moment we choose Him, the moment we choose to accept His sons sacrifice, is the moment we choose life, a life overflowing with love love love.

Choose the love of Yahweh today.

Read Romans 10:9-10 and choose His saving grace.

I really hope you do. I would love to hear about it.

I Am as Free as You Are

'I don't want kids. I want my freedom. '

'No I don't have kids, I have a life!'

Which means, as a mother of four, I have no freedom and no life.

Mkkay....

I had the freedom to choose to get pregnant.

I have the freedom to love and raise four little precious lives.

I have a life that is made even more full by those sticky little people.

I get more kisses than most people.

I am never bored.

I laugh more now than I ever have, and I laughed a lot before I had kids.

The list of good goes on...

A lot of women that I hold very dear have said these hurtful things in front of me....a lot. I just wanted to have an outlet for my feelings, instead of saying something snarky at that moment.....which is what I want to do.

Silly Selfies

People got all huffy when they added 'selfie' to the dictionary. Not sure why. It's a word that describes an action. And let's be honest, you've taken a selfie in your lifetime. I've taken more than my share......a large portion of them with a camera that requires film.......

#oldschool

Let's Try Something Different

Why do we freak out about the ten commandments being in school?  How about tacking this one up:

1 Corinthians 13:13 AMP
And so faith, hope, love abide [faith–conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope–joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love–true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Apparently law alone hasn't worked for us thus far. I get that we need rules. Everybody gets that. We know already. We're taught from birth to obey. But no one wants to obey a command from someone they think hates them or at best is indifferent towards them.

John 14:15 ESV
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

We keep His commandments BECAUSE we love Him. I could go be with another man.......BUT I DONT WANT TO! WHY? Because I love my husband. See where I'm going with this?

Where Does the Boycotting Stop?

Here's a list, via Wikipedia, for everyone boycotting Starbucks, if you boycott one why not boycott them all? In such a case, you're going to have to grow your own food, sew most of your clothes, bank at home, never fly, delete your FB, throw away all your Disney movies, quit watching sports or any TV for that matter, get rid of your mobile phone carrier, chop down your own wood to make home improvements, etc....

But before you take the time to read said list, keep this in mind:

~For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:17 NKJV)

See also: List of supporters of same-sex marriage in the United States
Organizations that support same-sex marriage in the United States are numerous.
Contents [hide]
1 Corporations
2 Labor Unions
3 Professional Associations
3.1 Non-profit advocacy
4 Religion
5 See also
6 References
[edit]Corporations

The following corporations have donated money, lent support to campaigns and court cases, or have in general come out in support of organizations that seek to protect or fight for same-sex marriage rights. Additionally, seventy companies, law firms, and trade organizations filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Gill v. Office of Personnel Management,[1] and over two hundred filed amicus curiae briefs in support of Windsor v. United States,[2] calling the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.
Abercrombie & Fitch[2]
Adobe Systems[3]
Aetna[4]
Akamai Technologies[4]
Alcoa[4]
Allstate Insurance[5]
Amazon.com[5]
American Apparel[6]
American Airlines[5]
Apple[7]
Applebee's[5]
Barnes & Noble[4]
Ben & Jerry's[3]
Best Buy[5]
Geek Squad
Boeing[8]
Cablevision[4]
Cisco Systems[4]
Clorox[5]
The Coca-Cola Company[5]
Concur Technologies[9]
Costco[5]
Delta Airlines[5]
Dropbox[4]
eBay[3]
Electronic Arts[10]
EMC Corporation[11]
Expedia[12]
Facebook[2]
Ford[13]
Gap[5]
Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime
General Mills[5]
General Motors[5]
Goldman Sachs[3]
Google[7]
Motorola Mobility, Youtube, Zagat
Groupon[14]
Hewlett-Packard[4]
Hilton Worldwide[5]
The Home Depot[13]
Houghton Mifflin[4]
IBM[5]
Intel[2]
Intuit[3]
J.C. Penney[5]
The Jim Henson Company[4]
Kraft Foods[5]
Levi's[6]
LinkedIn[4]
Marriott Hotels[5]
Marsh & McLennan Companies[2]
McDonald's[5]
The McGraw-Hill Companies[4]
Standard & Poors, J.D. Power & Associates, McGraw-Hill Education
Microsoft[8]
Morgan Stanley[2]
Nationwide Insurance[5]
NCR Corporation [2]
Nike[9]
Nordstrom[15]
Olive Garden[5]
Office Depot[5]
Oracle[2]
Orbitz[14]
Oreo[5]
Panasonic[2]
PepsiCo[5]
PG&E[16]
Procter and Gamble[5]
Qualcomm[17]
RealNetworks, Inc.[8]
Red Lobster[5]
REI[18]
Rite Aid[5]
Salesforce.com[4]
Sears[5]
Land's End
Southwest Airlines[5]
Sun Life Financial[2]
Starbucks[8]
State Farm Insurance[5]
Target[5]
T-Mobile[19]
United Airlines[5]
UPS[5]
Verizon Communications[4]
Vulcan Inc.[8][9]
Walgreens[5]
The Walt Disney Company[5]
ABC, ESPN, LucasFilm, Pixar, Marvel, Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, The Muppets, more
Wells Fargo[5]
Xerox[2]
Zynga[2]

When has boycotting anything ever brought anyone to repentance? Y'all, 'do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?' (Romans 2:4 NKJV) IT'S HIS GOODNESS THAT LEADS ANYONE TO REPENTANCE!

We've got to learn to be in this world and not of it, but also to love at the same time. Am I okay with homosexuality? No, because I believe it goes against the original plan of God. Do I love homosexuals? YES YES YES YES YES! Why? Because they are my Daddy's creation too! And He wants them. And we're running them off by hating anyone that supports them! You may say 'But I don't hate anyone!' Well, that's not how the world sees it. They only see hate when they see us boycott/ostracize/point a finger at them. It upsets me when I see Christians wanting nothing to do with the lost.

I have read and re-read this blog because I don't want to come across as angry. I am truly pained that we still think pushing anyone away is what brings them to know the love of Christ. If we truly believe that Daddy God loves us all, we must filter all of our actions through love. I am by NO MEANS perfect or have all the right answers, please don't think that I believe I do. Buy your coffee (or whatever) from whoever and look them in the eye and say 'I love you because He first loved me.'

I love you all. Please don't turn this into a big argument. I just believe our tactics of refusing to have dealings with anyone who believes differently than us, isn't working.

And think before you post anything 'anti-gay' on a website whose cofounder is gay.

Offense....Ain't Nobody Got Time For That

I mentioned to my husband the other night that I thought a particular person might be mad at me. I had no real reason to believe this and as I finished what I was saying I almost immediately thought 'Joy, get ahold of yourself. You sound like a bitter 'ol bitty.' So I decided to do my own little study on offense in the bible and see what the Holy Spirit had to say about it all.

"An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city. Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars." (Proverbs 18:19 NLT)

-Offense is something we take on ourselves. We....WE put it on. So to put it bluntly: Offense is a selfish action with selfish motives and selfish gain.

“If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector."(Matthew 18:15-17 NLT)

-Even in situations that we are justified (by mans standards) to be offended, the protocol states that we try to work things out in a peaceful manner.

"Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important." (Galatians 6:1-3 NLT)

-Restoration of an individual is God's priority. Don't be tempted to grab ahold of the bait that is offense. Y'all, people are broken and in dire need of God's restoring LOVE. And, friend, you and I are people. No one person is more important than another. I ask that God help me see that when given the chance to be offended or mad at another one of His children.

"Sensible people control their temper; they earn respect by overlooking wrongs." (Proverbs 19:11 NLT)

-Lu-Huvvah this verse!

I hope this ministers to someone as much as it ministered to me. When we go to the Word to seek answers we will find them if we seek with all our hearts. I pray as I type these words that the Holy Spirit will keep our hearts tender towards Him so that no spirit of offense will ever keep us from hearing His sweet sweet voice.

I'm That One....

...that awkward mom.

The one you never really know how to respond to. The one who blurts out something random and your only response is to slightly grin while you look away in hopes she'll leave you alone. Yup. That's me. I've crossed over.

It's like I hear these words leaving my mouth while simultaneously wanting to slap myself to make me shut up.

I wasn't always this way ya know. Oh no. I was quasi cool. Funny. Some might even venture to say skinny. I had a few things going for me. One being that I could blend if I wanted to, but I could also stand out. In a way that made people laugh with me, not snicker as I walk away.

What's wrong with me? They more than likely didn't even notice that I'm still in my sweatpants because I woke up late and threw everyone in the truck to get my oldest to school on time. They didn't notice, but I brought it to their attention because that's what Awkward Mom does. She tells you why she looks like she bathed in baby food and used cooking oil.

At this point it doesn't really matter. My daughter is only four and doesn't realize how inconceivably gauche her poor mother is.

Don't get me wrong. I love my life. I'm incredibly blessed in a number of areas. It's just that I have very recently had this...er....epiphany of sorts. And I do have an elite few friends who see how blisteringly hilarious I truly am. And I can look decent when given sufficient time to camouflage the effects of birthing three perfect human beings (you're welcome America.) I have a husband who, is either the world's greatest liar, or truly believes he is married to the hottest giant of a woman alive today. So, with that being said...

I would LOVE to be one of those fashionable moms who all the other moms wistfully stare at and daydream of being. (Or maybe I'm the only one who does that.)

But I'm not. Fashionable, that is.

I'm a mousy brown haired, slightly overweight, don't always get to brush my teeth before noon, mother of three.

You wouldn't notice me in a crowd, that is until I make everyone feel weird with my sloppy attempt at witty banter.

The ONLY reason I'm writing this for anyone to see, is that I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. Blended. So in these moments when I want to be noticed for something other than a greasy ponytail, I have to remember: I'm not alone.

What I am, is privileged. Privileged to get to see every growing moment of my children's lives. To have the memories that some moms don't get to make do to uncontrollable circumstances in their lives. I may only be in three of the pictures that get taken in the next twenty years, but we'll all know I was there when we look at them in thirty.

Alright. It's late. I'm gonna go blend into my pillow.