Here are some audio files hosted through SermonCloud.
and here's the link to hubby dear on YouTube. :)
Fish and Cans |
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A friend requested a link to some of my hubby's sermons. Here are some audio files hosted through SermonCloud. and here's the link to hubby dear on YouTube. :)
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The Annual Vellenga Newsletter
As most of you folks know, we are homeschoolers. I do delight (most days) in educating our seven year old. Our son is a delightful boy with a strong desire to learn. One of the things I do as a homeschooler is to converse with other parents choosing to educate their children at home as well. I've talked with numbers of individuals with a huge variety in methodology. And most of them I can very much understand. I do have to admit to struggling to understand one group of homeschooler though...and those are the unschoolers... and not all unschoolers, a particular type of unschooler. Those who say “as long as my needs are met, then I can meet the needs of those around me”. Sounds good doesn't it? But the more I learn about this brand of thinking the more I'm aware at how different I am and why I can't embrace that type of thinking. My needs are met in Christ. My needs are NOT met by centering on myself, or examining my life to see what I am missing, or communicating my needs and desires to others. My needs are met by not focusing on myself but on focusing on Christ. I know... for those of us who follow Christ that might not be that profound of a statement, but today I was folding laundry and thinking to myself...how do I have my needs met, and still be the person that God calls me to be and it was like God himself knocked on my head telling me that my focus is WRONG. Very wrong. My focus should NOT be on getting MY needs before I can meet the needs of others. My focus should be on HIM...not me, not my family, not anything else but HIM. If my focus is correct, then everything else will fall into place. That means a shift in my paradigm of thinking. It puts a whole different spin on the world it does. NOW... do I know how that will affect me and my family and the community in which I live? Haven't a clue. And that's okay. But it does make me very much want to say to all those that I care about.... Where is your focus? Truly and seriously. Where is your focus? Does it need to change? Does it need a shift? Do know that God wants a relationship with you. He oh so very much does. He calls for you to COME to him. To recognize your need to have ALL your needs met by him. ALL OF THEM. Not just some, but all. God knows full well what you need. So come to him, admit to him that he really does know best, and then truly get your real needs met. Now, on to the rest of our regularly scheduled newsletter :) This year: Jim. Lost more weight. Developed knee problems which put a kink into his exercise routine which caused him to gain some weight back. He's had knee surgery and is delighted to be able to get back into some exercise routine again. He's had a bad cold for the past bit which has been a challege for him. He's reorganized his office so he can do his work standing up. He still loves watching TV and is currently watching Stargate with our son. Highlights of Jim's year: going to the Banner of Truth conference, vacationing this summer with family, the guys camping weekend, fishing and actually catching a couple of NICE fish, and just chilling. He's fixed vehicles, helped around the house, and just all round been a good sort to have around. :) The lad: this young lad is starting to read. He is slowly improving. He's learning to sound words out and sometimes I have to guess at what he's spelling but that's getting less of an issue. He amazes me at the things he picks up and then incorporates into his play time. Big on his list of loves are spiders, playing “spider FBI”, making weapons of all sorts.. today he made a slingshot that works really well, Angry birds!!!!, bugs, and playing with his friends. (yes, homeschoolers have friends too). :) Me: well health has been a concern the past couple of months.. we learned I have gall stones, and that my digestive track isn't working quite the way we'd like it to. Positive from that is I've lost some weight (kinda helps if you aren't hungry for a good portion of the day). Things are still in process in that regard. I continue to raise and sell bunnies. Should mention I've had a couple of solid rabbit show wins this year... a couple of Best of Breed and Best of variety, opposite variety and what not. Makes me smile. I'm slowly making a foray into writing my own lessons in order to sell or give to others. I'm feel a bit daunted as learning new technology causes me a fair bit of hesitation. But Jim's a good support. :) My garden did okay this year. Not great, but okay. I've gotten accepted as a reviewer for The Old Schoolhouse which I'm quite excited about. :) The cats: they continue to be cats. We attempted this year to teach them to go potty on the toilet but we'd get to a certain point and they'd just freak out so we gave up on that idea. We may broach the topic next spring but for now I really don't want to walk that road again. :) The mouse: oh what? You didn't know we had a mouse? We were out of a walk one day and Jim said...it's a mouse! So we caught said mouse (a rather young domesticated one). We brought it home. I told that lad...if it's female it stays, if it's male it goes into the freezer. Fortunately (from Nicki's point of view) she was a female so now we have a pet mouse in the house. The lad enjoys her. The cats LOVE her and sit for hours staring at her. She really doesn't seem to mind. She did develop an eye infection which left her with a cloudy eye that she sorta seems to see through, but since she's in no imminent danger, it's not a hardship for her. Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas Season and an excellent New Year. to my goal of 40 lbs weight loss.
Would be nice eh? I am NOT going to stress over it though. I do need to buy more fruit for the house, but I've loads of canned fruit that needs to be eaten so I'd may as well use it up. :) I am simply going to us MyFitnessPal to track calories. I won't be as precise as hubby dear is, but I've watched my family for years stress about losing weight and that so totally put me off worrying on it, that I simply refuse to do so. I've also watched my hubby worry on it for the past two years and it drives me mad. :) God will allow what he allows and the rest will fall to the wayside...hopefully in this case it will be the weight falling to the wayside. :) What an excellent book to use with a lad. I liked it. Hubby liked it. The lad was quite sad when we finished it. We will read it again. It has been part of our bed time reading for the past two months.
40 short lessons that help a lad to think to and to build his knowledge of how God can be seen in the world in the light of things that occur in it. it was an excellent book. There were things that went over his head, but the book wasn't written for your average six year old (now seven). I can see this book working really well for children age 8 and up, though I suspect most would think of it as a book for teens. It is written to be a family devotional. I highly recommend people who love God and who want their children to THINK about what they believe to get this book. Since our son often attends gramma's church when he stays over for a weekend, we thought it would be lovely to go to her churchs' picnic. We had a good time. They are a very nice group of people and I felt right at home. The lad had a total hoot swimming. He ate fairly decently at the pot-luck meal which I appreciated. The food was good. The company pleasant. The weather lovely...hot without being stifling. It was kinda funny. At one point I thought he'd go up the slide, but he stopped and very carefully rescued a spider and set it loose in the gardens alongside the pool. He excitedly told me afterwards all about it. I just told him "good job buddy". He's got a tender heart to the smallest of God's creatures.
He had a good amount of fun in the sandbox as well. He played quite nicely with a lad wearing a blue shirt. They took tuns on the digger making a rather immense hole. Twas a good day overall. Made me strongly desirous to be a church with more young people in it and with people of similar life age/time in life grouping. Reminded me strongly of the need to thank God for where he has currently placed me, and to remember to be content wherein I am. Difficult to do at times. But the lad had a great deal of fun today so life is good! :) Some of you know that my lad has been stressing lately on his bedtime. he wants to be in bed AT 8 p.m. Not 759, not 801 at 8 p.m. and if he isn't, he stresses about it horribly.
Tonight he was crying and very upset that it was 802 and I have to admit, I got angry with him about it. It's like enough already. Mommy read one minute too long and now you have to brush your teeth...just CHILL OUT. Bedtime is NOT worth this much stress. And then I calmed down, got him to calm down, and then we talked...while he was stressing about what time it was... (yeah I know not great timing). But I told him that God tells us over and over again that we are to TRUST in him. not ourselves, not someone else, HIM. Just him in EVERYTHING. I think he understood a bit, but he still stressed about me getting out of his room so that he can get to sleep RIGHT NOW. As I ruminated on this with my hubby as this is becoming a fair issue for me at least. I stress because my son is stressing. it's stupid I know. Anyways, here I was folding laundry and thinking and I came upon the idea that just like my son is stressing about his bedtime and worrying about what HE can do to make it all work out just right so he's in bed on time, so I've been stressing about helping him NOT stress about this. I've been doing the very thing I told him was doing...making bad choices about who I trust. And so I said to my hubby... Hmm.. maybe this is part of what is going on here. Maybe God is teaching me another way that I can learn to lean on him. To trust HIM more and myself less. This NEEDS to be a matter of God. not my figuring. Just God's figuring. I need to pray more and stress less. That's what trusting God is. It's talking to him and knowing (even when it isn't clear) that he will make things right. Certainly something to think on eh? |
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