Christian Encouragers-Autumn, 2014
 

:) Welcome Friends :)
--------------------------------------


You've found a great place to come and vent, share or ask for prayer support.
This is a great group who will be very encouraging, caring and loving....
....anyone is welcome to join!

A Servant's Prayer --

Jesus, My Jesus....How marvelous are your ways....
Far more splendid than my mind can envision.
What an honor to be chosen by you.
A lowly child I am, but empowered by the Holy Spirit
to fulfill the great hope to which you have called me.
I give myself totally to you, Lord.
Take my imperfect heart and make it perfect.
Peel away the hardness.
Close the doors I have opened to the temptations of this world.
Gently remove the roots of painful memories, sins, doubts and fears.
Discard anything that separates me from you.
Lord, fill the emptiness with the light of your love that I might be a
beacon calling the lost back to you.

To love as you love.....
To serve as you serve.....
To forgive as you forgive.....
Always mindful of my nothingness while doing great
and marvelous things in your name and for your glory.
This I pray, Jesus, in YOUR name ...
Amen.

Hi, everyone! Decided to start a new fall thread to see if we can get going again. We've had a lot of illness and the passing of 2 of our anchors seems to have hit us hard, but we are here to help and support each other along the way, so we can keep on keeping on, as they say.

We've had some real changes in our life this last month. Two of our granddaughters, ages 6 & 8, have moved in with us, so we have a very full house! Our 2 sons are also living at home to save money for the future (one's just started college locally), so it's been a time of adjustment for all of us! The boys have been a blessing, though, as they are very good with their nieces and enjoy babysitting occasionally. We decided not to homeschool, as I'm just feeling tired and not sure I can deal with some of the issues that may come up. We may only have them a year, but it could turn into several years, or more, plus, there may be a learning disability involved, so we have them in school and they are loving it already! Great Christian teachers and a very supportive staff, along with a couple counselors who are trying to help them and us with the adjustment.

Prayers appreciated, of course. Their parents are getting divorced and we are told, now, that my step-son is diagnosed bipolar schizophrenic. Any who've been around here for a while know that my mother has that, so I'm very familiar with the effects of living with a mentally ill parent. He's in jail right now for making a very poor decision and the mother may be charged with child neglect for not taking the 8 year old to the doctor after she was nearly buried alive in a corn silo (severe bruising all over her back) and also had fallen from a hayloft (15 or so feet) a couple days before. We told them we would take the girls if it would give them a chance to get their lives together and straighten out financially, but, instead, our son decided to get into trouble. Just don't know what to do with him or his wife, but we can take care of the girls and love them and protect them.

We're trying to convert our dining room (unfortunately, it's open to the living room) into a bedroom for the girls and putting up temporary walls of that extruded styrofoam board. We figure they can also use it as bulletin board for their artwork and it will cut some of the noise from the rest of the house after they go to bed each night. They are doing well and we're trying to settle into a routine.

Hope you are all doing ok. Prayers continue for Karen, Bargoo, and all others mentioned in the prayer thread. God bless!

Hi, ronni, so good to hear from you. My situation and yours are the same, only reversed. I am moving in with my son and family, don.t want to but it is the only thing that makes sense. My 2 boys serve as my drivers taking me to chemo and other necessesary chores ,banking , etc.
ronni, I wil pray for peace and harmony in your family.
Please pray that I will find peace and harmony with my family.

Hello; My name is Judy. I've been a christian most of my adult life. I'm not saying that my walk with Jesus hasn't had it's bumps and bruises, but I don't know where I would be without him. I just figured out that since I trust most other things to him who created me, I need to trust him with my weightloss problem too. What I do is pray and meditate and read a bible passage everyday. This attempt at reaching a normal weight has so far been fairly easy. I think it is because I put God as an entegral part of the process. (Praise God from whom all blessings flow). I never realized there was a christian forum, even now God is helping me

jmh-:welcome2: Glad to have you here!

Bargoo-prayers always for you situation! And, thanks for praying for ours, as well.


The girls are doing ok. We're finding that this may become a permanent placement or even adoption, if things keep going the way they are. One thing I can say is that our son seems to be trying to get his life straightened out. He's getting his house cleaned up, changed the locks (someone has been going in and messing the place back up after he cleans and it's been witnessed by my MIL & SIL). He's got a long way to go, but at least he's doing something. Plus, he got a permanent job! So, no more traveling to work out of state and a regular schedule. He's trying to quit smoking and drinking as well. But, as I said, still a long way to go. He needs to be convicted that he must remain on his bipolar medication, because he has a habit of going off and then he gets crazy.

On the other front, the mother is still just sitting around, doing nothing to even try to find a job, and just relying on the gov't to support her. But, that will be ending as a report was filed on behalf of the girls about the neglect and potential drug use by the mother. She may face charges of neglect as well as fraud for using the funds that were for the girls after she signed the forms for us to take them. The DHS social worker was just here and she was hinting strongly that we may end up adopting the girls in a year or so. We're still hoping our son can get his act together, so he and the girls can be a family again. They may just have to accept that their mom isn't capable of being a parent and will have to be supervised in her interactions with all 4 of her children.

The older 2 kids, a boy, 16, and a girl, 15, who we've considered our grandchildren since DS1 and their mother were married, are having a harder time adjusting to the families they live with. They are totally unused to having any kind of rules and are complaining a lot. They aren't actually our grandchildren, so, at this time, we don't have any option for caring for them, as they wanted to stay near their mother. Both need to understand that the way they were living wasn't doing them any good, but, the boy may have been caught with drugs at school and they're both being manipulated by their mother. It's very sad. We try to be supportive, but also reinforce that they need to know boundaries and rules are part of life.

I could go on and on, but just know that they all need our prayers very much. We did not know (our son's wife never told us), but, our son has made a couple suicide attempts, one of which was witnessed by their 5 year old daughter. She has nightmares, especially since he tried to hang himself in their home. She saw 'mommy take him down' and then she 'had to go to grandma's house' which would be my husband's ex. NO ONE told us what was going on.

The school has a wonderful staff and a child psychologist who is working with the girls weekly, plus extra help, as we've found they have developmental vision problems and, possibly, dyslexia. So many learning hurdles that could have been addressed if the parents had only been parents instead of trying to stay kids themselves.

Well, must go work on supper, plus there's open house at the school tonight :)

Take care, my friends, and God bless! I'll try to get here more often. We've been so busy running and getting our house organized with 2 extra little bodies!

ronni, you are on my prayer list as well as in my heart. God will make a way.

Hello All
 

Hi, Pastor Rob here. I had gotten up to 300lbs, and at 5'6" that's pretty darn big. Two tipping points happened for me within a month. The first was that at a pastor's conference, every and any fat or large joke was directed at me . . .not cool, the second was seeing and I suppose noticing the effects foods were having on my son. I tried weight watchers and through research found that for me, it just wouldn't work. We cut out all refined sugar, soda, and processed foods. I've changed my schedule to accommodate me cooking all of our dinners, and I started Ideal Protein. 3 weeks in and I'm down 35lbs, my wife who is not on the plan is down 15, and both my boys have slimmed out. Behaviour issues have all but disappeared and everyone is feeling great.

I want to encourage you that you can do it. It is hard but totally possible. Even as a pastor :0) we had a pot luck at the church this morning. My wife made a dish that I could eat and that's what I stuck to. My health is more important than someone taking false offence because I didn't try their dish.

I wish you well and am open if anyone would like advice or chat. If you are on BBM, I've been chronicling my journey C00407624

God Bless
P.R.

Welcome Rob, good luck and God Bless you.

Welcome, Pastor Rob! Glad to have you here!

It's been another busy week for us. Gosh, when is it not, lately? The girls are working hard at school and home. Both seem to understand that they have learning issues and need to catch up with the rest of the students. Our son started his new job yesterday, but hit a hurdle already (that Satan is just working overtime!)-the state won't let him get his driver's license until December, even though he's passed all the tests and was told he'd get it this week. Not sure the reason why, but hoping it doesn't mean he got into more trouble than we knew about already.

The girls' mother's home was raided by police and drugs were found. One of the people she was living with was arrested, but, even though we know she's an addict and alcoholic, she managed to stay out of jail. She's now living with a man, even though she's not even filed for divorce from our son yet, and we heard a phone conversation telling the girls that she's making her house ready for them to come stay with her. Human services here told us to call the police if she tries to take them anywhere, so we need to get that in writing and just keep protecting these little girls.

I simply can't believe that our son and DIL wouldn't decide to grow up and be parents to these 4 children they're responsible for--makes me angry, you know.

I joined a Beth Moore Bible study at our church and today's lesson was on a very appropriate topic about our investment into things and the waiting to see and hope for the 'payoff'. Seems like that's the nature of parenting and grand-parenting, but also our wait for God's will to be done in all situations. I'm looking forward to continuing the study and also because it's so rare that I get time away from all the responsibilities at home.

Hope you're all doing well! Keep up the great work! Prayers for Bargoo, Karen, and all of you. God bless!

Hello! I am a Catholic Christian woman. In my (secular, medical) weight loss program, we talk a lot about balance. I know that when my spiritual life is out of balance, everything else is as well. I also know that there is a strong spiritual dimension to my overeating, and to my weight loss successes. As I mentioned in my reintroduction thread, I started my (most recent) weight loss journey about a year and a half ago, when I joined a medical weight loss program (which uses Optifast meal replacements, along with medical monitoring and weekly support/educational groups). I lost 100 pounds in 10 months, and was successful with continued weight loss, eating regular food for a few months. Then I began to slide in my resolve to stay "on plan" and in about 9 months, I gained 30 pounds back. I have been struggling with my program for all of that time, and haven't given up. I don't think I have the wrong program, I just think there is a fair amount of imbalance in my life that is keeping me from staying motivated to make healthy choices. Some of it is unavoidable - I homeschool my 4 children, and I do a fair amount of necessary volunteer work for the activities that my kids are involved with. These things really do keep me from being able to focus on myself, but I also view them as necessary for the time being. But my spiritual life has been dry as well. I know that I need to pray more and be more mindful of God's will for me in the little things, of the fact that He is what I need more than anything else, and to be more open to God's grace throughout the day. Once, when I was talking about gluttony with my priest, he suggested to me that I should look at each instance of having to sacrifice my desire to eat something unhealthy as a chance to glorify god with a healthy body. That is something that has been really helpful for me to do, and I know I have to come back to that more. So there are my jumbled, unorganized thoughts on my weight and my faith right now. I will pray for all of you, and would appreciate your prayers for me as well!

singramie, I like what your priest said. Welcome to 3fc and good luck.

Hello everyone,

I'm so glad I was able to find a Christian based support group! I've been struggling with my weight for years. I've started so many diets, but every time a special occasion comes up or we someone invites us over for dinner or I have a bad day and think I deserve a brownie sundae, it all goes out the window. I just haven't had the resolve to stick with it!

I recently started reading a book called Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst and its helping me understand that God has so much more for me (for us) than being in bondage to food. I'm finding it easier to lay down my cravings at the feet of Jesus and trust that He'll get me through it. And He does!

I look forward to getting to know you all and giving/getting support along the way.

singramie & JellySideDown - :welcome2: Glad to have you both here!

singramie - I also like what your priest said. That's also a difficult area for me. I just say that so you know you are definitely not alone. I am a former homeschool mom. Our 2 younger boys are both now homeschool graduates and one is a college grad, too, this year. Our 2 granddaughters are living with us now (they belong to my husband's oldest son, who's having a lot of problems right now), but we decided to put them in one of the nearby public schools, due to learning disabilities that are yet undiagnosed. They are ages 6 & 8 and have a lot of other issues, as well, that we are trying to handle with a lot of help from this school's staff.

Jelly-I have not read that book, but I've heard good things about it. I understand the problem you describe, though.

Hope you all get the support you hope for here. I know it's been a lifesaver for me! God bless and have a great evening!

I agree with what you priest said and balance as being central to becoming healthier. I pray for guidance for better choices in all aspects of my life and honestly feel that when I overeat, it's related to another problem that I'm not turning towards God. Prayer really helps me reconnect and establish my priorities. Also, moderation and gratitude are key when faced with the temptation to overindulge.

I'm new to this thread and I'm happy it's back to life :) May the Lord's peace and blessings be upon you all :hug:

Good morning, everyone! And, welcome to Muguet! Glad to have you here! It is nice to have some activity back here. Our little thread/group was hit with the loss of a couple long-time members to cancer and it hit us all very hard. I know I had trouble coming here and missing my friends, but, as with all loss, time does heal and I'm back and hoping we keep going and keep encouraging each other!

Right now, I'm sitting at the tire shop having to have tires put on one of our cars. Not what we really wanted to spend money on right now, but, you gotta do what you gotta do!

I really need to get some focus back on myself and my eating. I'm not gaining, but I'm not losing either. I seem able to maintain easily now that I know I can't eat wheat, gluten, oats (or most grains), and dairy, but to lose, I have to really cut my carb levels and that's been off my radar this summer and fall, with all the family changes we've had. I'm not really emotionally eating, but I'm just not WORKING at loss, so time to get down to business! I had bacon for breakfast and planning to stop to get salad stuff to take home for lunch. Must make some of my low-carb, dairy-free 1000 Is. dressing, too!

I'm thinking about applying for jobs, again. Probably just at Walmart or Hobby Lobby. Not my degree area, but we could really use the money right now. Anyway, I'm hoping to be able to do something part-time and hoping my health won't be too affected. Prayers would be appreciated on this, so I know whether it's God leading me or just me wanting to be in control.

Hope you all have a great day! God bless!