Live a Meaningful Life

You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. James 4:14 You and I, we are allotted some time here on this earth. How long? Your guess is as good as mine. Regardless of the allotted days or minutes we have remaining, our life really is just a vapor. As I survey my surroundings, I look and see vast needs. I see devastated families, wounded children, lonely people, sick people...I see the eyes of two boys looking at me. Oh, what great responsibility we have with our time here. We have absolutely no control over our past, what we have done up until this point. However, we can decide from this moment forward what we will prioritize each day as all things scream out demanding our attention. Stop telling yourself the lie, "When I....then I will make time for..." All you have is right now. "You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow..." Do you need some help prioritizing

Finally...I am finally able to write this! This coming May we are moving! We are moving to the forest--Cherokee National Forest! We are going to be volunteers for the National Forest Service and be the campground hosts at Thunder Rock Campground in Tennessee! We are too excited. While I am overly elated, I have brief moments I want to vomit. The fear of the unknown, leaving everything that is comfortable, leaving decent jobs...to volunteer. Yes, for free, no pay, no insurance... Our plan: we will figure it all out once we get there. Sounds crazy doesn't it? It may be. But I now know that we will not live with the regret of at least not giving it a shot. As for longterm plans, we don't have any. We have committed from May until October. Of course, if we like living this way, we plan to keep on...going wherever the road takes us. If we decide it isn't for us, will we return to MS? We don't know. It will all depend on where we end up having normal jobs, I suppose. In

Several days ago on our FB site Meaning Builders , we asked for your input about what makes change happen. The "change" business these days is huge! Take this pill, join this place, have this procedure, try this product, follow this plan, read this book...all of these promise to improve your life and lead to lasting change. Guess what? While some of these things may offer motivation, encouragement, and good strategy, they all lack the ONE necessary ingredient that will produce lasting change...discipline. Yep, that word we all avoid. The word we skirt around. The process we ignore. The big elephant that sits in the room while we take the pills, follow new plans, have procedures, and read our books. It makes us whine, complain, create all kinds of excuses, and look desperately for another way. Discipline is the process in which we make ourselves behave! The conditioning of our mind, will and choices to line up with our real desires. Without proper discipline all of our

This post is to help explain how we "do school" at our home. I attended a short homeschool moms' retreat this weekend and some were wanting to know more. For the most part, we call school "Warrior Training." When we started this, we discussed character traits of warriors (determination, endurance, strength, responsibility, self discipline, leaders, perseverance, etc).  Of course, Jesus is our prime example of a true "Warrior." We often refer to these traits as we are "in training." For example, if someone tries to skip over difficult words instead of trying to read them correctly I might remind him of how sometimes doing little things that seem pointless lead to great results. For example: taking a very long time to sharpen an arrow will lead the hunter to make a quicker kill. Taking a few more seconds to say the word correctly will help you read better in the future. For each "warrior" their weekly mission is given to them usin

I often look at my children and have these kinds of thoughts:  "It is so funny. These kids actually just get in the car and trust me to take them somewhere. They trust me to feed them, provide clothes, and supply their basic needs. Little did they know, I had never even held a newborn before." The only time I have ever heard them express concern is if we are taking longer than expected to arrive somewhere or if it has been a while since the last grocery trip! They just blindly trust, like in the picture above. They trust Johnny and I to meet their needs and love them. When they wake up every morning, there are no burdens or worries and days are filled with exploration, play, and freedom. When I think about how much they trust us, I am reminded this is exactly how I am to trust God. He reminds me so much throughout scripture: Matthew 6:25-34 or Luke 12:24-34 is the first that comes to mind. The shortened version: He takes care of the birds and the flowers. How muc

The best way to travel down any river: with this good looking man behind you! Hi, there! I am behind with posting. I had planned to be done with the summer posting by now. I want to write about the beginning of our school year and some thoughts that have been floating through my brain recently. Since I have not been posting about our summer adventures in chronological order, I am not exactly sure how this will end up! But, here it goes! One day while in North Carolina, the boys and I took the boats and paddle boards to explore the part of Fontana Lake that was at the campground we were staying.  I love exploration journeys. We pretended we were discovering it for the first time. When one of us saw something interesting, we explored further.  Often, It required problem solving.  But, the rewards were were worth the effort!  We even made a new friend and learned something. Box turtles have an amazing ability to swim on with his shell completely out of the water.