You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

...You shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am LORD. -Leviticus 19:18
...You shall love your neighbor as yourself. -Matthew 22:39

This verse is mentioned several times in both the bible (old and new testament). Clearly God honored this commandment, wishing for us as Christians to uphold it with great importance. In fact, Jesus mention it second only to loving God.

Recently, my husband and I have been doing some deep studying and allowing ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit rather than by man's views or doctrines. Tonight as I was researching things on the internet I found many forums of Christians bashing Christians. I was so saddened and disheartened that I had to stop looking around and felt led to come here and type up a little something about this. This is the first time I have noticed something like this, as I see it frequently in the Christian community. However, this is the first time I've seen it in such a concentrated volume. It was so sickening to me. Why do we spend so much time bashing others for their beliefs instead of working to reach the lost for God's kingdom. Does it really matter to which doctrine you subscribe, if  you truly believe that Christ died and rose again to save you from your sins and live that out in your daily life. If you have denied yourself and taken up your cross to follow *OUR* Savior (Matt. 16:24) and I have done likewise what do we we have to argue about? We will never see eye to eye on every single issue because we are imperfect, flawed. We each read and interpret scripture according to the way we have been molded in life. Let me be clear: Sadly,  I don't believe everyone is going to heaven. I don't believe that truth is relative.  I believe there is ONE truth and we must trust in that Truth if we are to live eternally with our Lord.  I believe there is such thing as righteous judgement and I believe that we are called to hold each accountable. However, if a brother or sister in Christ is clearly practicing scripture out of the Bible, I don't believe they ought to be judged. I think there are far more important matters at hand!
How about we reach out in love to our unsaved family, our neighbors and our community and represent Christ's teachings so that others may join us in the His kingdom! Imagine how much more we could do for Him if we set aside our self-righteous works of the flesh and replace them with  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). 


I leave you with one final thought from Galatians 5:25-26- If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Until next time, may Christ's love and blessings be upon you and yours. 

Time4Learning Review

Austin really enjoyed using time4learning. It took a little bit for us to figure out how everything worked. One aspect I liked was you can set a timer for how long they are required to work before they can use the "playground." The playground is an area where they can play educational games. Austin really enjoyed doing the work on time4learning. Proof of this showed when one morning he came to me and said, "It's time to do school, isn't it?" That was a first in our house! He usually tries to find excuses as to why we can't start school yet.  The only downside to time4learning is that I don't feel like it could be a stand alone curriculum.

I believe we are going to pay for a subscription and continue doing time4learning in addition to what we already do.
If you decided to sign up for Time4Learning don't forget to tell them that Jennifer Cenname referred you!

Begin with the ending.

This Tuesday I am leading our ladies bible class on a study of the Proverbs 31 woman. Funny thing, I had this 'assignment' given to me by someone who doesn't know I write this blog. Oh, the irony. Anyway, tonight I am preparing for what I will say at the study. Do you feel like you could never measure up to the the woman mention in Proverbs 31? Do you avoid this chapter like the plague because you are so disheartened when you compare yourself to her? I hope not. This divine scripture is is so much more than the literal words written on the pages of the Bible. Let's look behind the words, what are the words describing?

The words talk about a woman who is loyal, respectful and supportive of her husband.
A woman who works hard to provide for her family.
She reaps the reward of hard work with her strength.
She provides food for her family.
She is a woman who cares for the needy.
A woman who is prepared for times ahead.
A woman who uses her skills.
She is wise.
She is kind.
She's not lazy.
Her husband and her children praise her for all that she does.
Finally and the part that is the foundation of all that she is: She fears the Lord.

Are any of these things unattainable? Call me naive if you must but I don't think there is a single Christian woman (married, single, children or no children) out there who cannot achieve all of these things. Look how this woman bears the Fruits of the Spirit mention in Galations 5: She is faithful and loving to her husband and family. She has goodness toward the needy. She has self-control over idleness. She speaks with kindness.  And these are just  few of the most obvious ones.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that any one woman could be 'perfect' but the characteristics of the Proverbs 31 woman are in fact attainable if we begin with the very thing mentioned in v. 30, "fear the Lord."

Until next time, may Christ's love and blessings be upon you and yours.