Camping, Compromise, and Companionship

My husband is "outdoorsy" and I am "indoorsy"....Therein lies opportunity for some compromising! While growing up I was a girl scout and camped quite a bit. I kept coming back for the fellowship, but tolerated the camping and scouting aspects of girl scouts.  


This week in our dynamic marriage class I have been thinking about recreational companionship. Being Billy's True Companion (one of my all time favorite songs- can be heard here). There is a line in that song that says: 


Yes, I'll climb a mountain
I'm gonna swim the sea
There ain't no act of God girl
Could keep you safe from me

and I'm realizing that part of "romance" for Billy is nature. This song capitalizes on willingness to love your partner and to share a companion-ship that carries you throughout your life. At the end of the song Marc Cohen sings:

When the years have done irreparable harm
I can see us walking slowly arm in arm  
Just like the couple on the corner do
'cause girl i will always be in love with you
And when i look in your eyes
I'll still see that spark
Until the shadows fall
Until the room grows dark
Then when i leave this earth
I'll be with the angels standin'
I'll be out there waiting for my true companion

and I can honestly say this is the companionship I long for both now and in my old age.  And I realize being a companion offers A LOT of compromise. Like camping :)

Song of Solomon 7:1-9: Quintessentially feminine! Your profile turns all heads, commanding attention. The feelings I get when I see the high mountain ranges —stirrings of desire, longings for the heights— Remind me of you, and I'm spoiled for anyone else! Your beauty, within and without, is absolute, dear lover, close companion.

Genesis 2:18-20: God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion." So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn't find a suitable companion.

So, dear friends, I'm headed camping today with some good friends, my son, and my true companion... I'll let you know how it goes! Please be thinking about how you can be a more true companion to your spouse and share that in the comments below....

Mothers and an Unfair Advantage...

I was recently sent this interesting perspective on motherhood and wanted to pass it along...


The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new.

Mothers have an unfair advantage with the Lord. In Luke 7, Jesus observed a huge funeral procession in Nain. The entire town was present. He observed the young men and women weeping. He observed the pastors and apostles weeping. He observed the elders weeping. He observed the fathers weeping. He observed the children weeping. He observed the sadness on people's faces. Nothing seemed to move Him, until HE SAW THE MOTHER. The bible says He had compassion when He saw her and immediately raised her boy from the dead. (Luke 7:12-15). 


It was the cry of a mother that moved the Heart of God. Still today, Mothers who cry before the Lord for their families, for their marriages, for their homes move the Heart of God. When Mothers stop praying their families (especially their children) perish. Satan gets a foothold and starts to destroy the home, yet when they return to their rightful place as the anchor of the home, demonic strongholds get demolished.

In Psalms 17, 36, 57, 63, and 91 God's role is likening to that of a Mother. As a Mother protects, upholds and defends her children, so does God also protect us under the shadow of His Wings . We find refuge there and can hide there until the danger is over. A mother's role is so vital that a father cannot get his prayers answered if he dishonours/ disrespects her (1 Peter 3:7). Because, of this favour over mothers, they are also the most attacked persons in the home. The devil is terrified of Mothers (the powerhouse in the home). Yet the Lord has put inside Mothers grace and resilience to overcome any situation. 


Today, As the woman of the home, consider yourself blessed. Consider yourself highly favoured and consider yourself dangerous when you pray.

Mystery Bloggers...

I have been thinking about this for a while and I want to let you all in on my secret plan...

I want to have some mystery bloggers write some posts for you!


I will ask some people to post, but also want people to volunteer to post on a concept that means something to them... 


I'd love for people to write about....


Boundaries in parenting and scheduling
Working Mom challenges
Challenges Moms face that work outside the home- from home
Victories in marriage
Being a "helper" to your spouse
Moms who home school (what your convictions are, why you do it, what you've learned from it)
Moms who are busy working in their homes
Balancing a career with motherhood
How what we feed our children affects their learning and behavior
Vaccinations
Keeping "passion" alive in your marriage
Confessing Sin to find refreshment and repentance
Workplace gossip
Pressures of being a "stay at home" Mom


and much much more. 


If you are following this blog- please volunteer to "host" a post on one of these topics or another that is close to your heart by emailing me at:  melissatulloch@gmail.com


I will post your article- on your behalf, and you can send your friends over to read your ideas. Or your post can be a mystery! In just the last month I've had close to 800 readers so I'd love to get your thoughts and ideas out in cyber-space as well!

Pushing Through

I've been a little sick lately- last week there were two days in particular that I really felt sick. Friday was my split day teaching at the middle school so I worked from 7:30-9, and then had to return at 1:45-3:30. It was very difficult for me to return to school feeling so sick, but I wasn't able to find a substitute and didn't want to leave 24 7th graders alone and unattended so I knew I had to "push through".


This got me thinking back to the character building and refining times in my childhood that my parent's would encourage me to push through how I was feeling to do "the right thing" of the moment- very often it was Thursday mornings after a particularly late mid week church service. But sometimes it was when I had a cold, or a broken heart!  My parent's were training us to push through because in life we often have to push through our feelings to be what we need to be- to better imitate Jesus. 


A close friend of mine told me about how her two year old was driving her crazy the other day and she had to literally leave the room and scream into a pillow to keep from being unkind to her little munchin. She was pushing through (while pregnant and irritated...) As you know from previous posts I am focusing this year on BOUNDARIES.... (that word is starting to feel like a bad word because I am so bad at this healthy concept). So I have been struggling with how to keep boundaries while in those "pushing through" moments...


How do we determine when our kids need to push through something for their betterment? 


This whole concept really boggles me.  I want to be considerate of my soon to be two year old, and to protect him, but not from things that will be better for him in the long run (even with a momentary challenge). Having taught middle school for eight years I have seen what good intention-ed parenting can often produce in kids who life is modeled around.  This level of entitlement is well discussed in this article here. 


I am most aware of not building my life around Wil, but he is young and has a lot of needs.  How can we meet our kids needs without having the entire family revolve around our little ones? Every kid is so unique and what might be "pushing  through" for Wil might be torture for a friend of his.


And how in the world do we consider boundaries in light of all this?!


I went to my Bible for counsel...

Proverbs 20:11-Even small children are known by their actions, so is their conduct really pure and upright?  

Proverbs 22:6-Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.  

Proverbs 29:17-Discipline your children, and they will give you peace; they will bring you the delights you desire. 

Ephesians 6:4- Fathers,^[a] do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Titus 2:4- Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children

2 John 1:4- It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.

There were over 400 scriptures on children but these are the ones that stuck out to me. What do you all think? I'm dying to know- please comment below:)


I want to close with my favorite parenting scripture.... 
psalm 78: 


³ things we have heard and known, 
   things our ancestors have told us. 
⁴ We will not hide them from their descendants; 
   we will tell the next generation 
the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, 
   his power, and the wonders he has done. 
⁵ He decreed statutes for Jacob 
   and established the law in Israel, 
which he commanded our ancestors 
   to teach their children, 
⁶ so the next generation would know them, 
   even the children yet to be born,    and they in turn would tell their children. 
⁷ Then they would put their trust in God 
   and would not forget his deeds 
   but would keep his commands. 

By Chance?

^{Abraham Lincoln said "I will study and get ready,} 

^{and perhaps my chance will come"...}

In preparation for my Superbowl party Sunday I got to thinking about competition, and how unreliable football games can be. Sometimes it is totally chance who wins the game. I found this scripture that talks about chance- and I am interested in this concept.

¹¹ I have seen something else under the sun:
   The race is not to the swift
   or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
   or wealth to the brilliant
   or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.
 ¹² Moreover, no one knows when their hour will come:
   As fish are caught in a cruel net,
   or birds are taken in a snare,
so people are trapped by evil times
   that fall unexpectedly upon them. (ecc 9:11-12)

 God is all knowing and therefore- can there ever truly be chance? Is it possible that things happen by chance or is everything in our futures already laid out? I know some religions believe in predestination-  the doctrine that God has predestined some persons to eternal happiness and others to eternal punishment (Websters definition). 

But according to the Bible- God knows our future (Jer 29:11- ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future"). 

The question is- how detailed into our future is God? Does he give us parking spaces when we're driving around at the mall looking for them? Does he allow chance? 

What do you think of these scriptures?

1. Romans 8:29
   For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
2. Romans 8:30
   And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
3. Ephesians 1:5
   he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
4. Ephesians 1:11
   In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will