The Bible in 90 Days

With the new year, many bloggers and others are jumping on the new read the Bible in 90 Days bandwagon.  Our own church is promoting this concept.  Apparently, you can read the entire Bible from cover to cover in just 90 days.  It takes about an hour commitment EVERYDAY. 

That's awesome!  I encourage everyone to read God's instruction manual for life.  Personally, I have read and studied the Word from cover to cover several times.  Three to be exact.  Do I claim to have all the answers?  Absolutely NOT.  Everytime I read the Bible, I get something new out of it. 

BUT... I have several arguements against this concept.

• Let's be realistic here.  An hour a day?  Who has an extra hour of uninterrupted, downtime a day?  Not me!  I don't know if anyone with children has an hour a day!  What happens when life's unexpected happens, like I don't know, you're up all night with a sick kid or something.  You just don't seem to get your reading done.  Well, then what are you going to do?  Read for two hours the next day?  Not!  I believe this system is setting people up for failure.  When they get behind (which is almost inevitable in three months time), chances are they are going to get discouraged and give up.
• If you do find the time to devote an hour of time a day to reading the Bible, how much of it that you are reading are you actually retaining?  I read somewhere that the average adult attention span is around 20 minutes.  How long before you are just reading the words and not getting it.  Your mind begins to wander to the grocery list, what needs done, etc. etc.
• Once again, I think this concept is another attempt of man trying to put God in a box.  If you are too busy trying to reach a goal of reading the Bible one hour a day and staying on track, is your relationship with the Lord suffering?  I mean how will you find the time to um, pray, memorize scripture, and go where the Lord leads?   

What do you think of this new program?  Have you tried it?  Where you successful or not? 

Expired Coupons

Want to help out military families, but really don't have much extra cash? Here's a way to do something with all your expired manufacturer coupons, besides throw them into the landfill, or paper recycling. You can make a difference in someone's life, without it costing alot to do.


The Overseas Coupon Program allows you to send your expired manufacturer's coupons to military bases around the world. The military families can use manufacturer's coupons that are up to two months past expiration to buy items at the commissary store.


This is program is an all volunteer program and is not affiliated with the military in anyway. It is not a tax deductible charity, but it'd be a blessing to help military families stretch their hard earned dollars.

Don't just start mailing your manufacturer coupons to military bases. This is a volunteer charity, not affiliated with the military. You sign up to adopt a base and send coupons to the address given. It sounds easy enough, you separate them by food and non-food coupons and put in a baggie. You do have to pay the postage expense, but what a blessing those coupons could be to military families.


This is just one of the many things our family is planning on doing to bless someone's life during these hard economic times. Being a homeschooling family, as we do these little things, we find the place on a map and try to learn a little about it, then we pray for the people at that base and for those who receive the coupons.


How are you helping others during these hard times?

The Garden

By now everyone's garden is well underway (hopefully). This was our first year of starting heirloom seeds inside. Unfortunately, many of our tomatoes and cabbage plants died once we planted them outside, but luckily my friend was closing up her greenhouse for the season. I was able to purchase 3 flats of heirloom tomatoes, roma tomatoes, cabbage and broccoli for $9.


This year is probably the biggest and best garden we've put out yet. We usually put out about a 1/2 acre garden. This may be just a little bigger, it's hard to tell, since the trees are maturing on our property, it shades areas too much, so we actually have several garden patches.


This is the first year we have actually kept up with the weeding of the garden, too. How much easier it is to get those pesky things when they're little.


This is a favorite poem of mine, taken from our church bulletin several years ago. I don't have credits for it, so thanks to whoever wrote this sweet poem.

The Garden

For the garden of your daily living:

Plant three rows of peas:

1. Peace of mind
2. Peace of heart
3. Peace of Soul

Plant four rows of squash:

1. Squash gossip
2. Squash indifference
3. Squash grumbling
4. Squash selfishness

Plant four rows of lettuce:

1. Lettuce be faithful
2. Lettuce be kind
3. Lettuce be patient
4. Lettuce really love one another

No Garden is Without Turnips

1. Turnip for meetings
2. Turnips for service
3. Turnip to help one another

To Conclude our Garden, We Must Have Thyme

1. Thyme for each other
2. Thyme for family
3. Thyme for friends

Water freely with patience and cultivate with love.

There is much fruit in the garden because you reap what you sow.

What Religion Are You?

I seen this quiz at Clothesline Alley. Thanks Amy for the fun little quiz!

A Personality quiz about your religious and spiritual beliefs.

Your Results

The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.

Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.

1.
Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%)
2.
Orthodox Quaker (84%)
3.
Eastern Orthodox (83%)
4.
Roman Catholic (83%)
5.
Seventh Day Adventist (76%)
6.
Jehovah's Witness (60%)
7.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (59%)
8.
Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (57%)
9.
Islam (56%)
10.
Orthodox Judaism (56%)
11.
Hinduism (47%)
12.
Baha'i Faith (39%)
13.
Jainism (39%)
14.
Liberal Quakers (35%)
15.
Mahayana Buddhism (35%)
16.
Theravada Buddhism (34%)
17.
Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (33%)
18.
Unitarian Universalism (30%)
19.
Scientology (27%)
20.
Sikhism (26%)
21.
New Thought (24%)
22.
Reform Judaism (22%)
23.
New Age (21%)
24.
Neo-Pagan (19%)
25.
Nontheist (18%)
26.
Secular Humanism (12%)
27.
Taoism (11%)

Amy had quite different results than mine. No big surprise for number 1 in my case!

To try this yourself, go to beliefnet.

Yet Another Sad Moment

Our family was brought together with Nancy Marberry several years ago through the Prayer Pals Program. Basically an older person met with the kids, sent them an occasional card, and prayed for them daily.

Our relationship with Miss Nancy was so much more. We enjoyed visits, phone calls, and letters to and from. Another special thing about this relationship was that my kids were sensitive to Miss Nancy's physical needs (as she was to their's). We started praying for Miss Nancy, as well.

When Nancy's daughter, Gina, called and told me of her mother's passing,she said, "Don't worry, we'll still be praying for your family." What a blessing to have these people in our lives!

Self Control

Ok, I'm a slow learner. I recently discovered that God expects us as Christians to have self control over all aspects of our lives. Whether it be with obvious things like remaining faithful to our spouses, drinking and drugs, but also with other things like the food choices we eat (and the amount!) the music we listen to, the tv, the amount of time we spend on the computer, the amount of time doing things outside of ministering to our family.

God calls us to be keepers of the home, if we are too busy doing "other things" to say, make a healthy meal, we have gotten our priorities wrong. It may happen occasionally, but we have to have self control.

So, you want to know what made me have this revelation? A simple children's song. Have you heard of Mary Rice Hopkins? If not, be sure to check her music out. (It's fun for the whole family.) Read the words of her song Gimme Self Control:

Gimme self control when
You know I need to know
When to stop and when to go

When I want to eat but my
Tummy's full then I get a
Chocolate cake I stuff it all in
then I feel like a fool and
Now I've got a tummy ache

How many times this has happened to me! Not necessarily with food. I think I know best instead of trusting in God.

BTW, be sure to check out Mary Rice Hopkins website. She has sample music, curriculum and other fun stuff. If she ever has a concert nearby, be sure not to miss it!