Forever Beloved

Faith, Love & Truth

10 God Truths Our Littles Need to Know

We see every generation fall further and further away from God and essentially away from core family values. There are certain things I want to make sure my kids know. And I want to be the one that teaches them these values and truths. It’s either I teach them truth or the world teaches them lies.

1. You were uniquely designed you to be YOU. You are His perfectly perfect creation, handcrafted by the same hands that made the stars. There are billions of us here on earth, but does that make any of us less valuable? Absolutely not! If you found billions of diamonds would they be less valuable because there were so many? Jesus skillfully crafted the body, mind and soul of each and every human being in his/her mother’s womb. So the next time your self-esteem is lacking or you feel not as pretty, thin, popular, etc. as the next person, just smile and thank the God who made you, died for you, and wants the best for you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139:13

2. You will never be perfect. God does not demand our perfection to get His love. God knows there is a gap between His perfectness and our imperfection. It’s there and it will always be there. But if you’ve put your faith in Jesus and received Him into your life then you’ve been declared righteous. You are covered under His grace, declared righteous and are precious in His eyes and you are held in the hand of His care. You are HIS and he loves you unconditionally.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
Romans 3:23 

3. Honor your parents. This is a big one guys. God gave one commandment to children, obey your parents. This is more than just obeying them, it’s treating them like important people.  It’s treating them with love and respect. Sometimes we are asked to do hard things that we don’t understand, don’t want to do, don’t feel like doing or that anger us. But remember, when we obey God we always know that he will bless us and make us happy.

Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Exodus 20:12

4. Guard your heart. You are to keep your heart safe and guard it from attack. Just a little side note…because everyone else is doing it is not a good excuse. There is a real war going on right now over your soul. Every single day satan prowls around and looks for an opportunity to pounce on your heart. You must be a warrior, put on the armor of God and guard your heart against attack. You need to be on guard about the occult, sexual sin, envy, greed, sassyness, gossip, lying, anger and pride. This is just a teeny tiny list of what to be on guard about.

Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
Proverbs 4:23

5. Learn forgiveness. We are to forgive others just as God has forgiven us. remember, we are all sinners and not a single one of us is perfect. We are literally obligated as God’s children to extend to others His unlimited capacity to forgive.

For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
Matthew 6:14-15

6. A monkey is not your father. Evidence of creation is simple, it’s outlined in Gods word. God created the Heavens and the earth by simply speaking them into existence. He created the land, seas, plants, sun, moon, earth, lights, birds, creeping animals, and humans. He spoke them into being. He made man and woman in His image. He made us different from the rest of creation.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1

7. Purity is cool. While the world would tell you differently. Just look around, we are constantly bombarded by sex. When you fall in love, it’s natural to want to express your love in physical ways. But you also know God wants you to remain sexually pure—in both your actions and your thoughts. Sometimes it’s a tough balance, but showing love for another and remaining pure is possible. Respect yourself, respect your partner but most importantly respect God.

Think of what an amazing gift you would be able to give your future husband/wife on your wedding day. Not only would you be giving them your whole heart but you could also give them your whole body as well. What an awesome gift that would be!

PS…Real love doesn’t say “If you love me, you’ll do ________”. Real love says “Since I care about you so much, I will respect you, treat you with kindness and never ask you to do something you know is wrong.”

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
1 Corinthians 6:18

8. Spend time in Gods word. Although the Bible can be a challenge to read (um, hello…it doesn’t read like an ordinary book, was written over thousands over years age by nearly 40 different authors and in several languages) God gave us this for a reason. Every answer you ever, ever need for a life problem can be found in this book. The only way to grow more in your walk with God is to dig in there and get in His word. Thankfully, there are different Bible translations now that make it way easier for us to read and understand.

Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Deuteronomy 11:19

9. Anger is never the answer. Being angry at someone isn’t going to change their heart. Ask God to help you control your anger. It can ruin a relationship quick quick quick. Anger shows your worst side. And often, things said in anger are horrible, ugly and not really meant. And once they are said there is no going back.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.
James 1:19

10. You are loved, always. God is love. God can’t help loving because it is an essential part of His character. He goes looking for us when we wander away from Him. He won’t rest until He finds us and brings us back home to Him. He will pursue us tirelessly until we are returned to Him, our loving Father. And He doesn’t care if we are messy or missing some parts when He finds us. He welcomes us home to Him just the way we are.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:8


Meal Planning Monday {on a Tuesday}

Monday – WalMart chicken and mashed potatoes, easy peasy 
Tuesday – Million Dollar Spaghetti and Garlic Bread
Wednesday – Hotdogs with Jdawg sauce on homemade buns
Thursday –  Homemade Meat Pie {recipe below}.  It’s my hubby’s fav meal AND since he’s finally back on first shift, we’re celebrating! 
Friday – Breakfast for dinner {sausage and hash brown balls, eggs and homemade bread for toast} 
Saturday – Out to dinner
Sunday – BBQ Chicken and Cheesy Potatoes
Homemade Meat Pie

Right away, you’ll notice that there aren’t many measurements here. That’s because the amount of leftovers varies! Just sort of eyeball it.

  • left over beef roast and gravy
  • frozen corn
  • refrigerated pie crust
  • frozen cubed hash browns
Preheat oven to 350º.  Line your casserole or pie dish with one of the pie crusts {two come in a box}.  Although if you’re using a casserole dish, it’s sometimes hard to stretch one crust over it all.  Just keep at it, trust me, it seems impossible but eventually it will cover it all.  Once I get the crust in, I prick it with a fork a few times and throw it in the oven to cook it a bit before adding the filling.  Make sure to watch it so it doesn’t burn.  
For the filling, I heat up the leftover gravy on the stove, adding water if necessary.  Shred up the leftover roast and throw it in the gravy.  I thaw the hash browns out first and put them in the gravy mix.  If it’s getting too thick, add more water.  I normally only add half the bag.  I have fresh corn in my freezer that I did up last summer.  So I thaw that and add half the bag, saving the rest to eat alongside the pie. Once everything is heated through, I add it to the bottom crust.  Put the other pie crust on top and cut slits to allow the steam to escape.
Cook for 30 – 45 minutes, until top crust is golden brown.

Judging Others

This is a subject God has been laying on my heart for quite a while now. And I kept saying “Awwwww God, are you sure? This is a hard topic!”. I seriously doubted I could do it and I made a million excuses as to why I couldn’t. Honestly, I’ve been putting it off. It’s a risky subject to talk about. It’s a subject that every. single. person. in the world likes to weigh in on. As I keep putting it off, God keeps nudging me and has met me at my doubts. He even put a book in my path that was filled with this topic. Finally, today, I’m trusting Him with it.

The topic…judging others.

First of all, let me get it out there: I am a recovering judge. Not the good kind, who approaches sinners in love and addresses sin in a biblical manner. But the bad kind, who casts judgment with a condescending glance {y’all, I have this look down pat}, a whispered tsk-tsk and an eye roll. When I was first married, my husband would say “You think you’re so much better than them” and I would promptly respond with “No, I know I’m better than them”. I know, I know…not my most shining moment as a Christian. I’m telling y’all, I bet working on this girls heart wore God out some days!

How many times have we all heard ‘Don’t Judge Me’, ‘Judge not’, ‘Stop Judging and Love’, ‘Who am I to judge?’ or other similar ones these days. And I’m sure we’ve all saw the quote below. I see it just about daily either on a friends Facebook wall or pinned on their Pinterest. While I agree, we all do sin differently, I was curious about this subject from a Biblical perspective.

As Christians, we are often accused of being judgmental. Goodness, poor Phil Robertson created two media crazystorms being accused of being judgmental. As soon as you start talking about judging, the first verse pulled out is Matthew 7:1, Judge not, that ye be not judged.

I do agree with this…tearing others down, judging harshly, judging their hearts, making rash and unkind judgments is all wrong. Totally wrong. It’s absolutely not our place to judge others hearts. There is only one person that can do that, God.

But if we were all honest, don’t we all judge every day? Don’t we all make calls every day based on wisdom and discernment? Y’all, that’s judging! As a Mama, don’t you judge television shows to see if your kids can watch them? As a wife, don’t you judge what actions you should and shouldn’t do? Don’t we make daily calls on what is wise to spend our money on? And hello, have you ever sat on a jury? Yep, that was all you judging someone. So can we really actually say we should all just stop judging?

Did Jesus judge others? I mean, surely He came into contact with tons of sinners. How did He handle it? When Jesus encountered people who were caught in sin, first He showed them love, (the woman at the well, the woman caught in adultery), then He told them to go and sin no more. He never insisted they stop sinning first.

Wow. So before He judged them, He loved on them. He didn’t scoff at them, roll His eyes and treat them poorly.  He didn’t throw His hands up and say “Yeow, is this one ever a doozy” {actually, He may have said that while working on my heart, ha}.  What did Jesus do?  HE LOVED THEM! Is it easier to hear criticism from someone if they loved on you first? If they said it with kindness and you knew their heart was in the right place? You betcha! It’s all about love people. Gods greatest commandment was love one another {John 13:34}.

If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.

Matthew 18:15



Now let’s get to the hard part, the actual judging. The Bible tells us that we are our brothers keeper and we are to care about each other. If we see someone in the church that is struggling, it’s our place to go to them in love and talk to them. In essence, judge. Honestly, what our “judging” should look like is being filled to the top and over flowing with love, caring and helpfulness. We all stumble and fall and we all need someone to help pick us up.

Is there a pregnant teen in your church? Take her to lunch, see what she needs, throw her a shower…SHOW her God’s love. Is there someone in your church having an affair? Go meet privately with them, tell them you know what’s going on and ask how you can help, direct them to a marriage counselor…SHOW them God’s love. Is there a new member of your church that is homosexual? Take them to lunch, get to know them, reach out to them…SHOW them God’s love. That, my sweet friends, is what our judging should look like.

Let me end this by saying I’m far from perfect myself and sure need lots of reminding from the Lord as to how my walk should be going. But thankfully His grace is new every morning. I just hope to maybe give a little honesty and hopefully open your heart to God’s direction.