iwantmk.comLuanne Storer,IBC

This weekend was a little crazy. Isn’t it funny how we think that when school is over, things will slow down a bit…wrong…we want so badly to enjoy summer that we book ourselves for twenty-million activities? In the end we just exhaust ourselves. Even vacationing is hard work anymore. Babble, babble, that is not even what I wanted to talk about. Anyway, this weekend was difficult in more ways than just a packed schedule. It was hard on my heart and heavy on my soul.

I found out something about a friends child that could not be ignored. I had to, for the sake of the child and the parents find out the truth of the matter and let the child’s parents in on it. It is hard enough to love a friend, love their child, and find out the child is in trouble, but to have to break the parent’s heart….well, it sucks. There is no other way to say it. Nobody likes to be bearer of bad news, or stir up trouble, or be the snitch. The truth is, the easiest thing is usually not the better thing. It was also hard because I want the child to trust me enough to come to me when he/she is in trouble. I don’t want to be the person who tells, I want to be the person who they know will walk beside them and help them on their way. I thought about it and prayed about it and in this instance; I knew I had to tell the parents.

As a parent, I want to know. I want to know if my children are in trouble or need help. Believe it or not, there are parents who don’t want to know. Ignorance is bliss, even at the expense of the child. There are parents who don’t want to punish or deal with a child’s issues just because they don’t want to be the “bad guy.” It is more important that their child likes them than it is for them to correctly love their child which includes being unliked sometimes. Take the risk…don’t make parenting about you. Know that being a parent is a God given gift of serious responsibility. It is not to be taken lightly or used for selfish appeasement of our own insecurities. Love your children enough and your friends enough to tell them the truth and not waver from it. Accountability is hard to take sometimes, but it sure is a safe place to be.

Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer (if your name is Debbie…sorry), but I just wanted to share and see what you guys have to say about it all.

It’s a little tuff puting pictures of myself on here after posting pictures of Elle, but here ya go.

Before:                                                                                  

After:

I know my hair looks red, but it actually looks a bit lighter than this. Seriously, this was after the second time it was colored. We have come to the conclusion that is just won’t get any darker than this. Anyway, it still fits the “dirty blonde” catagory. This next picture just shows the cut better in black and white.

Can you tell how thin my hair is getting? Ugh!

Have a great weekend & love on all those fathers out there.

Kisses!

Today I opened my Comment Moderation page and there was a truly creepy spam comment. Are we safe anywhere? What really creeps me out is that advertisers would not take the time and spend the money on all of this spamming if it didn’t really work. How sick are we that we would respond to something gross and sexual on the spot from a complete stranger. I really feel sad for our men. They are being bombarded every day. I am so thankful for my faithful husband. I am scared for our youth. There is something to the fact that if it is not available or if it is hard to get, it is less gotten….do you know what I mean? Now a days, you can just about get whatever you want whenever you want and nobody even has to know about it. It really scares me. We have all three of our computers out in the open where everyone (including me) can be monitored during use. We also have an awesome accountability system called Covenant Eyes. We each log in to Covenant Eyes when we get on the computer. It logs our usage individually. It sends an email every month of every site we have gone to to whomever we choose. Daniel & I monitor each others and then we each get one of the girl’s report. It is easy to read because it rates sites and if there is a concern, it is posted in red at the top of the page. It just takes seconds to glance at it and know your family has been safe. Thanks for letting me rant. Check out Covenant Eyes if you don’t have a safety system in place. We are all tempted and we are all capable on falling to temptation. I love accountability. It helps me keep things in check.

Kisses!

Today is a tip on changing our attitudes and thinking. One of the best ways I’ve ever known to keep from focusing on the negatives in life is to keep a close eye on the positives. Be aware of everything you have to be thankful for. I would like to challenge all of you to start a list of the things you are thankful for: 

God (He’s my Father)

Jesus (He’s my Savior)

Salvation

My husband

My Children

Brownies

My husband’s job

Our home

Homeschooling

Laughter

Our Church

My friends (they love me just as I am)

My parents

My brother

Freedom

My sanity

My dog (Dudley)

My children are Christians

Our vehicles…..

Go ahead….share the start of your list with us if you will, and then for the next 30 days, add to your personal list every morning or night, whenever you have time to pray and reflect. Let’s see what a difference it makes in the way we think.

 ·          Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things. Philippians 4:8 (NIV)  

This has been an extremely hard week for my family & I . I’m not going to go into it all, but I will tell you that lying in bed, in complete distress I was talking to God and asking Him why some people are so mean and inconsiderate. I don’t understand how people can make a conscious choice to hurt other people and it seems to almost give them a sense of satisfaction. It is sick. I have was so frustrated with it all, I just told Him that I didn’t care “why” anymore, I just wanted them to please stop, I just wanted Him to make those people stop hurting our family.

All of the sudden my mind skipped (you know how it is when your praying and you loose your train of thought) to something I needed to do. A friend of mine had met me yesterday and she said “My friend  read your blog gave me these coupons for you to give to your friend that is the “coupon lady.” (Jenny, from momminitupof coarse!) At the time, I thought, “Wow, that is so thoughtful, she has sent these through two people to get to a third she she doesn’t even know.” Back to me lying in bed; you do know what my next thought was, don’t you? It wasn’t, “Crap, I gotta get those coupons to Jenny tomorrow!” It was “Man, why can’t I be more like that….this women is so thoughtful and considerate of someone she doesn’t even know. How, in the midst of taking care of her children and her busy life, does she have the time to look out for the needs of people she doesn’t even know?” Coupons may seem small, but it is a mindset, a worldview, a part of someone’s character that makes them choose what to do in the small things as well as the big. The Bible says that what you do with little, you will do with much. There are people who are good and considerate, and loving and kind. There are people that look out for the needs of others before their own. There are people that have a heart and mindset of giving and not taking.

Oops…back to God.

Luanne: (silence)

God: Luanne, which one are you?