True Story

This is the rosary that hangs on my bedpost. My mother sent it to me per my request when I found out my uncle, who is a priest in Thailand, would be visiting her. He is getting up there in age and I wanted something, anything, blessed by him before his call home. She chose a rosary, had it blessed by him during his visit and then sent it to me. It stayed wrapped up in a velvet bag, nestled in a box in my nightstand drawer for many years. It wasn't until roughly six or seven years ago that I took it out of the drawer and hung it on my bedpost for a very good reason. A much needed reason. I'll tell you why in a minute, but first a bit of back story:

When I was ten years old, I discovered that I can control portions of my dreams. This little trick comes in handy from time to time. I can get out of nasty dream situations - being chased, showing up to school naked - once I realize I'm dreaming. I just decide what I'd rather being doing in my dream and, *poof* I'm doing it. Neat, huh?

Many years ago, I had a negative experience with several members of a church (another post entirely) and, after several months, decided that there must be something more than "just God" out there, so I began searching. My search lead me far and wide but also left me quite vulnerable. Because of my area of interest at the time, I began having what I would call satanic dreams. In these dreams, evil and invisible entities would attack me. I often woke up scared and shaken. More than once, I woke up screaming - much to the delight of my husband, I can assure you. Usually, I would try to stay awake after one of these dreams for fear I would be attacked again.

Even though these attacks carried on for years, these dreams were not every night or even every week, but often enough that I became annoyed. Having a nightmare and being afraid to fall asleep again afterwards does not make for productive time at work the next day. About this time, my search was steering me back toward Christ. I was beginning to realize that He was the only one who really provided any security and a true promise. Also about this time, I remembered my handy trick about controlling my dreams.

The next two or three times that I had a dream where I was attacked by an evil force, I simply remembered to shout, "JESUS CHRIST IS MY SAVIOR!" in my dream and the evil force would quickly disappear leaving me to either continue with a more pleasant dream or wake up feeling more like a conqueror than a scaredy-cat.

The unfortunate part was that despite my success in fighting off the evil that came to attack me in my sleep, I was still having the dreams. While my little trick worked to fight these nightmarish dreams it didn't prevent me from having them. I wanted them to STOP!

That's when I remembered my blessed rosary in my nightstand drawer. I simply took it out of the little velvet bag, hung it over the bedpost so that it rested right above my head, said this small prayer, "Lord, please protect me while I sleep" and crawled into bed.

And I have not been attacked by a single evil spirit in my dreams ever since.

I did this even before fully returning to Christ. Because of this, I do believe that even faith as small as a mustard seed can, indeed, move mountains. I think God saw me in the distance coming toward Him and rushed out to welcome me back. Even though I had not fully returned, He knew I was coming home and did for me what I needed Him to do - then as well as now.

Fight for me. Protect me. And give me rest. I'm going to bed now.

Thankful Thursday

I went to bed last night thinking I did not have anything to post about this Thankful Thursday then God work me up this morning with this song in my head:



I remembered this video immediately. It's just over two minutes and so worth your time.

Thank you, Lord, for this awesome reminder that I live in a wonderful world and I have You to thank for it!

Have a great day everyone and check out Sting My Heart for more Thankful Thursdays.

Product Review

I'm going to talk to you today about fiber!

Hey! Where is everyone going?

I know! I know! When someone says fiber, you think cardboard or hay or wood chips. But I'm going to talk to you about yummy fiber? You've never heard of yummy fiber? Well, listen up my fiber challenged friend because yummy is on the way!

First up: All Bran Crackers.
They come in two flavors - multi-grain and garlic. Garlic is by far my favorite but as far as I'm concerned, you could sprinkle garlic on a shoe and I'd eat it. You get 5 grams of fiber for 18 crackers (they are the same size as Wheat Thins). Now 18 crackers sounds like a lot but I can down half the box without even realizing it. You can find these along side the other "mediocre" crackers in the snack aisle.

Next comes Fiber One Yogurt.
There is not ONE detectable difference between Fiber One Yogurt and any other yogurt out there. It's smooth and creamy and, oh-so yummy! If you are needing to get more fiber into your kids diet, here's your chance. London loves this yogurt. It's one of the few things I don't have to fight with her to eat. Well, that and chocolate! Five grams of fiber per cup. The easiest five grams you'll ever down.

Last but not least, Fiber One Breakfast Bars.

Oh.My.Gosh! Seriously! These are soooooo good! And a whopping 9 grams of fiber per bar. They come in three flavors: Yummy, Way Yummy and Super Yummy! Okay, those aren't really the flavors, it's just that I can only remember two right now: Chocolate & Oats and Peanut butter. I'm sure the third is just as delectable. Check these babies out next time you're in the cereal aisle and give them a try. Admittedly, I don't know the sugar content of these. I could run downstairs and look at the box, but I'm comfy and not about to move. I trust you can look this information up for yourself.

Forget what you thought about fiber. Fiber is yummy thanks to the good people at Fiber One and All Bran. Remember: fiber is our friend. Say it with me now -

Fiber is our friend!

Good, good. Now go eat!

Mommy Tip Tuesday

Hey, it's that time again! Time to share your tried and true mommy tips and pick up some tried and true mommy tips as well.

Are you like me and sometimes find yourself late in the evening wondering what on earth you are going to blog about the next day? I do this often. Or sometimes, I will get up in the morning and have something in mind to blog but then remember I have somewhere I need to be and, therefore, no time to blog.

You'd be amazed at how many times I've gone to bed on a Monday night and, just after climbing into my comfy bed, thought, "Oh no! I have no tip for tomorrow!" You would think that I would have accumulated tons of them before even beginning this meme, but not so.

Well, here's my little mommy/blogger tip for you today: Did you know that Blogger now lets you schedule your blog posts? Yep, you can write several at once but have them post to your blog at different times. Times you've set up in advance. I've already done this with my Meyer Mondays and am looking to do it with my Mommy Tip Tuesdays.

This is what you do. When you are finished writing your blog post, click on the blue "Post Options" link in the bottom left-hand corner of the compose box. This will bring up your options directly below. Off to the right, you'll see "Post date and time". Just change the info in each box to the date and time you want your post to be published and that's it. It's so easy!

So if you find yourself trying to decide between two or three different mommy tips and can't pick just one, you can write about them all separately and schedule them over the next few weeks. Then each week, you can just sit back & relax come Tuesday morning knowing that your tip has already been shared with the rest of us thanks to scheduled posting!

Do you have a Mommy Tip you'd like to share? Post about it on your blog then return here and add your name and web address to the Mr. Linky below. We'd love to learn something new from you. Just please remember to link back to The Stumbling Christian in your Mommy Tip blog post so that your readers know where to find other great Mommy Tips and also join in on the fun as well.

Meyer Monday

When love takes charge of us (which is another way of saying, when God takes charge of us), we cannot think bad things about people. We don't even want to.

We are not really living the life of the Spirit until we allow the Holy Spirit to control every area of our life. He will certainly never get control of our life until He has control of our thoughts and words.

Being led by the Spirit is central to a victorious Christian life. As long as we think our own thoughts and speak our own words, we will never experience victory.

Our life is a reflection of our thoughts. It is impossible to have a good life unless we have trained ourselves to have good thoughts. If we want others to see Jesus reflected in our life, then His mind must be reflected in us. We must be led by the Spirit in our thinking; that is where all Spirit-led living begins.

Be determined to love God, yourself, and others with your thoughts. Let God's love take charge in your life.

~ Joyce Meyer, Being The Person God Made You To Be

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...you are living the life of the Spirit, if the [Holy] Spirit of God [really] dwells within you [directs and controls you]. ~ Romans 8:9

Seek The Lord Sunday

But the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness
and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.
~ Galatians 5:22,23

Daiquiri over at Call Her Blessed has asked her readers what bible verse speaks to us lately.

When I first read her topic for this week's Seek The Lord Sunday, I thought, "Hmm, well I've had bible versus speak to me before but nothing is really speaking to me as of late." I honestly thought I wasn't going to have anything to contribute this week. But yesterday morning, Galatians 5:22 & 23 spoke to me. Loudly.

I have been piling the duties, responsibilities and "busy work" on myself quite a bit lately. I have a much larger responsibility with my church's moms group this coming year. I've decided to rev up my Tupperware business and start booking parties. I've created and organized a Tot Swap with seven other moms one day a week starting this Wednesday. We are trying to get the house ready to put up for sale. I'm trying to organize a sort of "coupon club" with some friends. I'm preparing for a garage sale for next weekend and I've been hitting garage sales in hopes of finding great deals on kids stuff so that I can turn around and sell it for a profit at a large semi-annual kids consignment sale that takes place in the fall. Those great finds need to be cleaned, ironed, tagged and inventoried. In addition to that I have FOUR blogs to maintain plus I'm working on starting a fifth for my church moms group. All the while, trying to maintain a home, spend time with the kids, time with hubby, time with friends and time for me.

Oh, and time with God. That would be nice.

Whew! I'm tired just reading that.

But it was yesterday morning that I had my priorities put in order for me. You see, when I realize I haven't spent anytime with God lately, it's usually right after I've crawled into bed. I can't tell you how many times I've almost fallen asleep while in prayer. Nice, huh? How would you like it if someone you loved deeply and DIED FOR could barely squeeze a minute into her day for you and then when she FINALLY did, she falls asleep on you!

Realizing that I need to include God in more of my day, I decided to have an on-going conversation with Him throughout the day - since I pretty much have an on-going conversation with myself anyway, why not let God in on it! So I was outside, hosing the dust & dirt off my daughter's princess slide and telling God how I would simply like to enjoy my day today and asking for His help in this area. I started talking about how I'm just so busy lately and admitted that I often forget to just enjoy the "now" of it. That was when the above bible verse hit me between the eyes.

You see, nowhere in the bible does God tell us to be busy. God tells us to be fruitful! He even tells us how. That is different! I'm not being fruitful when I am too busy cleaning my kitchen to sit down and read a book to my little girl. I am not being fruitful when I am too busy to spend some quality time in conversation with just my husband. I am not being fruitful when I am too busy to call a friend I know is having some difficulty right now and talk to her about the healing power of Jesus.

And I certainly am not being fruitful when I so busy that strengthening my walk with Christ is something I hurriedly try to squeeze in at the end of the day because I feel I "have to". God doesn't want us to reach out to Him out of obligation or for fear we might get in trouble. He wants us to yearn for Him, to seek Him eagerly, to enjoy our time with Him and to make Him our #1 priority because we love Him so much we just can't stand to be away from Him.

Being busy is a great trick the enemy uses to keep us from God and I'm embarrassed to say, the enemy gets me with this one almost everytime.

If I'm not actively working on the things listed in Galatians 5:22 & 23, the what on earth am I working on? Or, more precisely, who am I working for?

I haven't an answer for my mix-up in priorities right now. I have no real plan of action. Though I do know I need to do something. I cannot continue to allow the enemy to use the lie of "too busy" to keep me from my Father any longer.

I will call upon the Lord to lead me out of my current darkness and into His light. To slow me down and cause me to catch a breath. To lie in green pastures, if you will. He's done it before, I completely trust He'll do it again.

And I know this as well - HE will not fall asleep on me.

My Not So Super Savings Saturday

Normally, I would be bragging today about my exploits in the couponing and thrift store world but, alas, today I bring you no such exploits.

No, today I bring you a hard lesson learned. Okay, maybe I'm being a bit melodramatic. Maybe it's not such a hard lesson. Maybe I've just been waiting for the chance to use a big word like melodramatic. Maybe.

Okay, so it's not a hard lesson learned but it still stinks nonetheless.

Last week, I went to Walgreen's and donated $5 to breast cancer research and received a $5 register reward toward a Revlon purchase in return. This week, Walgreen's had Revlon products on sale B1G1 1/2 off. So I trotted my little self on down to Walgreen's with my RR and two $2 Revlon coupons in hand hoping to make a thrifty little make-up purchase.

Ah, but the powers that be had other plans!

Dum-dum-dum!

I decided a mascara and some eye shadow were exactly what I needed and proceeded to the counter (after hitting the candy aisle and getting two Crunch bars for .50 cents each. What? You do it too!) The cashier was very friendly and helpful and we got to chatting about couponing, good deals and saving money. She rang up my total and a teeny-tiny little voice in my head said, "That's too much" but it was so teeny-tiny and I was so engrossed in my conversation that I ignored it and went on my merry way.

It wasn't until after I got home and double-checked my receipt that I realized that I did not receive my second Revlon purchase at 50% off. I decided to double check the add before I headed on back and that's when I realized my mistake! Yes, MY mistake!

Dum-dum-dum!

The Revlon mascara and eye shadow that I purchased were NOT a part of the B1G1 1/2 off deal! Had I taken more time and looked over the ad and read the details, I would have known what was exactly on sale but I was so hurried to get out of the house and back again that I did not slow down to make sure I was making a responsible and sensible choice.

So let my suffering be a warning to you: Slow down and read the ads!

Oh, and when that teeny-tiny little voice is trying to tell you something, LISTEN!

The cashier did give me the two tubs of body cream for free though, so that was nice.

Check out some people who DID make some awesome purchases and great deals over at Money Saving Mom.