Finding Joy in Your Home

Easter seems to sneak up on me every year. Before I know it, it's the Friday or Saturday before Easter. And I realize how little time I've spent instructing my children, celebrating this season, and focus on the Good News of the Gospel!

So this year, I'm challenge myself (and YOU) to take the next two weeks leading up to Easter and really focus on Christ, why he came to earth, his dead, and now the fact that HE IS RISEN, HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Let's jump into today's quick episode on focusing more on Christ this Easter:

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

Our new TWO-episode per week format for the podcast

Some ways we can keep Christ at the center this Easter

My 14 day challenge to you

And what we are doing this season to focus more on Christ!

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

1 Peter 1:3-5 - Opening Scripture

The 14 Day Christ-Centered Easter Countdown (This is what we are using for the next two weeks)

Hf #33: Anxiety, Worry, and the Biblical Response

Treasuring God in Our Traditions by Noel Piper

Other Posts on Easter:

Why Easter is a time of CELEBRATION!

Promises of the Coming Messiah: A Journey Through the Old Testament

Fulfillment of the Messiah: A Journey Through the New Testament

Why Easter is a Time of Celebration: The Resurrection

Why Easter is a Time of Celebration: Future Promises

Thanks for Listening!

There is so much to constantly occupy our minds and our hearts with worry, anxiety, and stress these days. It seems like everywhere we turn, there is something new to worry about. It's hard sometimes to know what our reactions should be to this stress and anxiety.

 

In today's episode we are going to take an honest look at what it means to have anxiety, worry, and stress and what we can do about it. I'm getting very personal in this episode and sharing about my own personal struggle with anxiety and how God taught me a very powerful lesson through it.

What should our Biblical response be when worry and anxiety seep into our life? Let's jump into the episode to find out:

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In This Episode, You Will Learn:

About my own personal struggle with anxiety

How I learned to overcome this struggle through God's Grace and a few practical applications

Some ways you can begin battling anxiety

How we can ALL begin trusting in God more and more with each passing day

[Tweet "Memorizing God's Word can be the first step in combatting worry and anxiety."]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

LEAVE A REVIEW: Homemaking Foundations Podcast on iTunes

Hf #28: Memorizing God's Word So You Can Truly Cherish Christ

Hf #27: Methods for a Deeper Prayer Life

Book of the Week

Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts by Jerry Bridges 

This is the book I read while in the middle of dealing with anxiety that helped the most! While I was working on memorizing Scripture so that I could focus on God more, I was also reading this book that really made me realize how much I'm NOT trusting in God and what it really means to trust him.

My biggest take away from this book, that I still think about often, even years later, is that God is GOOD! One of my struggles with anxiety honestly, was knowing that God is in control of all things and actually believing that, is that maybe God's will was for me to die from a heart attack at age 20. Or that he might take my husband early because he is sovereign and I trusted him in that, but it also scared me.

So one of the biggest take aways from the book is that yes, God is sovereign over everything, meaning he is in control, nothing happens without his knowledge and his hand in it, but he is also good!!

Yes, God is in control. But he also deeply loves us. We are sons and daughters of the high king and he cares deeply for us. This does not mean we will have everything we want in life: fame, wealth, or health. This is not a prosperity Gospel and often God does work through pain and tragedy for our good. but he also loves us and wants good for us in His will! That's a really important and powerful thing to remember.

5 Free Scripture Guides

In this episode, I share five different categories to help you get started with memorizing Scripture. I’ve compiled these five categories into these handy printable guides for you so that you can print them off and start memorizing God’s Word – right away!!

Click on the image to sign-up and download instantly!

Thanks for Listening!

Learning - and growing from that learning - is an important part of our lives as women. We should we striving to learn and grow but this can be so tough to manage with busy schedules and full lives. In this episode we address the importance (from a Biblical standpoint) for learning and some practical ways we can do so.

Proverbs 18:15 "The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, the ears of the wise seek it out." Today's episode is going to be the next installment of our Spiritual Disciplines for Busy Homemakers series! Let's jump in:

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

What it means to learn in our homemaking and our lives as believers

A Biblical look at wisdom, knowledge, and learning

The point of the Spiritual Discipline of learning - for growth in godliness

3 ways to promote learning and growth in your own life

Where to find resources for learning

[Tweet "I maintain that a biblically balanced Christian has both a full head and full heart, radiating both Spiritual light and heat. - Donald Whitney"]

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

My Homemaking Mentor – the biggest project I’ve ever worked on! I’m so excited!!

Hf #25: Developing the Habit of Daily Bible Reading

Hf #27: Methods for a Deeper Prayer Life

Hf #28: Memorizing God's Word So You Can Truly Cherish Christ

Book Recommendation: Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney

My Resource page with lots of book recommendations

Homemaking Ministries Online Conference 2015 (an excellent place of learning)

Blog Article: Finding the Time to Read as a Busy Homemaker (lots of practical tips)

Blog Article: But, Im just too busy to read the Bible (from a busy mom of 4)

Book of the Week:

Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung

The tagline to this book says it all "a mercifully short book about a really big problem". It's a quick, short little book about a very important topic. If you are wanting to get back into reading but feel like you don't have the time or don't know where to start, I highly recommend this quick book. Keving DeYoung takes an honest look at what it means to be too busy, some signs of being too busy, and what you can do about it. I highly recommend you start here and then after you start developing a small habit of reading one page a day, move on then to some bigger books.

 

Thanks for Listening!

How can we learn to better love our husband with a sacrificial, unconditional love? In last week's episode we discussed what it means to become our husband's cheerleader and learn to better cherish and respect him. This week we are taking that concept one step further and focusing on what that love looks like.

So now this week we are going to go a little deeper into what it really means to love our husbands as God loves our husbands. This is a particularly important when marriage gets tough. If you've ever gone through a trying time in your marriage, or walked through a difficult season, you know that those lovey-dovey feelings don't always come naturally or easy.

Let's go ahead and jump into the episode!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

What does it mean to love our husband's like God does

What does it mean to love our husband's in a sacrificial, unconditional way

Some practical ways we can show love and respect to our husband's

How we can actively guard against unloving feelings in our marriages

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

My Homemaking Mentor – the biggest project I’ve ever worked on! I’m so excited!!

Hf #29: Becoming Your Husband's Cheerleader

Book recommendation: When a Women Inspires Her Husband by Cindi McMenamin

Hf #13: Where I interview Jennifer Ross and we discuss marriage

Blog Recommendation: Club 31 Women by Lisa Jacobson

Blog Recommendation: Thankful Homemaker by Marci Ferrell

Book of the Week:

The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace

I was fortunate enough to come across this book in my newlywed days and it remains my #1 resource recommendation for Christian wives. The thing I love about this book is that Martha goes straight to Scripture and never strays from what the Bible has to say on being a Biblical woman. She shares her own struggles within marriage and is open about how hard being a wife and marriage can be. But she doesn't shy away from what God's Word calls us to. I'm convinced that it's a book you could read just about every single year of your marriage and get something new out of it each time.

If you are looking for a Biblical blueprint on what it means to be a godly wife, then I highly recommend you check out The Excellent Wife!

Thanks for Listening!