His Robes for Mine

Have you heard this fairly new hymn? It is amazing. I just love it!! I downloaded it on iTunes for 99 cents and Paige and I have been enjoying singing it. We heard it first at church. Anywhoo, I'm not going to get off on a tangent, but I wanted to share it with you all. If you listen to the tune on the sample from iTunes, you can sing along with just the words. This website even has the sheet music, but I really enjoy singing it with the BJU quartet that I downloaded on iTunes.

Church Works Media

Here are the words:

His robes for mine: O wonderful exchange!
Clothed in my sin, Christ suffered ‘neath God’s rage.
Draped in His righteousness, I’m justified.
In Christ I live, for in my place He died.

Chorus:

I cling to Christ, and marvel at the cost:
Jesus forsaken, God estranged from God.
Bought by such love, my life is not my own.
My praise-my all-shall be for Christ alone.

His robes for mine: what cause have I for dread?
God’s daunting Law Christ mastered in my stead.
Faultless I stand with righteous works not mine,
Saved by my Lord’s vicarious death and life.

His robes for mine: God’s justice is appeased.
Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father’s pleased.
Christ drank God’s wrath on sin, then cried “‘Tis done!”
Sin’s wage is paid; propitiation won.

His robes for mine: such anguish none can know.
Christ, God’s beloved, condemned as though His foe.
He, as though I, accursed and left alone;
I, as though He, embraced and welcomed home!

is God really first?

I feel completely inadequate to write this post, but since it is so heavily on my heart, I decided to go for it. Hopefully God will use my efforts for His glory. Learning the hard way is... well, hard.

We've all said it. We may have grown up hearing it. When someone asks us about our priorities, we tend to list God first, then husband, children, etc. Chances are that if you grew up in a Christian home or going to church, this was the norm - the "right" answer. But is it true? Is God really first?

As I have started thinking about morning routines and all that I would like to get accomplished in a day, embarking on this whole Maximize Your Mornings commitment - I have taken a hard look at His place in my list of to-dos. For years I have purposed to get up daily and read the Word. I have not always succeeded in that goal and there have been some seriously dry times in my life when I wouldn't even make myself do it. I knew it was the right thing to do, but it seemed like there were so many other things that "had" to get done.

God has used those dry times in my life. I'm not doubting that. Honestly, though, they have been much harder than needed to be and ultimately, were used for one big main goal - to draw me closer to Him, to make me realize my need for Him - for time in His Word, for communion with Him, for praise and honor to Him, for refreshment, fulfillment, and feeding - on Him. So, really, it comes back to spending time with Him. If I would have just obeyed, I'd have had an easier time of it.

I should have listened the first (second, third....) time - but I didn't. My spiritual life grew stagnant and boring. I wasn't growing. I wasn't changing. I wasn't being all that God had called me to be - simply because I wasn't spending time with Him.

Why do we think we can get away with that? At least for any length of time. I mean... sure, there will be days that we don't get in the Word - a day here, a day there. But a week here, a month there - man, we are in for some hard and dry times. Our heart becomes hard. We sin; often times without even knowing it. We are grieving the Holy Spirit.

If God truly has the power that we say He does - why aren't we trying to learn from Him? If He is supposed to be our best friend, why aren't we receiving His phone calls? Since He speaks to us through His word, we should be longing to have that call with Him each day. We'd never ignore a phone call from one of our closest friends. Again - this is me speaking from experience. I have most definitely not arrived. I'm still figuring this stuff out and convicted daily of these very things. When I made His word a real priority in my life, my life started changing; my walk with Him started changing; my family started changing.

I've been reading Elizabeth George's Life Management for Busy Women. (on a side note: I just had a discussion with Big P and the Big kids about the fact that "woman" makes me sound old. I don't feel like a woman. I forget my age - I think I'm still in my 20s.)

If you also want to make God first in your life (for real!), here are some tips Elizabeth shares. You must read her book, though, because I'm not going to elaborate on them much.

1. Refuse to miss a day. You can use the quiet times calendar I posted. Be faithful in just one thing - spending a portion of your day reading your Bible.
2. Pray as you approach God's Word - I'm realizing that this doesn't have to be a sit down and pray sort of a prayer. When I get up in the morning, I'm talking to God. I'm going to the restroom and drinking my glass of water and talking to God. I'm thanking Him for the morning that He has allowed me to enjoy and asking that He open my eyes (figuratively and literally at 5 am) to His word and plan for me for the day. I'm certain that this is what is meant by praying without ceasing (1 Thesselonians 5:17). I have another prayer time after I read, but this is to really set the tone for my quiet time.
3. Consume God's Word in various ways. Listen to teaching on your ipod or DVD. This book was written in 2002, so she is still saying tapes and videos. Some that I love are: Cindy Rushton, Jim Berg, and Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Also check out the Embassy Institute from IBLP. Listen to praise songs and hymns. Ones we love around here are: David Nevue, Serene and Pearl, and Val Halloran. 
4. Find a rhythm or a pattern that fits your lifestyle. Find a time for reading your Bible that fits your lifestyle - but do find it and don't use a busy life as an excuse (her words, not mine. :D). She really stresses time, first time, early time.
5. Be a woman of one Book - the Book.  If you only have time to read one book, make it THE book. "First, make it a rule to read what honors God's standards and glorifies Him." Put away all the magazines and stuff that doesn't edify. Even if it is a Christian book, and you aren't reading the Word regularly, put it away until you get into the habit of spending more time reading His words than others'.
6. Be accountable. Check this out: "Thomas Edison made it his practice to first announce his intentions on a given project, then get into the laboratory, get busy, and make the announcement become a reality!" Do you have someone that will check in on you? Accountability can be a convictingly (not a word, apparently) good thing!
7. Beat the family.  Seriously - that's what she says. Ha. Get up earlier than your family gets up. See the Maximize Your Mornings challenge to wake up for your children, not to your children.
8. Teach your children. Have a table time reading and studying God's word. We are just starting this and it is becoming such a blessing! Teach your children to be in their Word. Ingrain this habit in them from childhood. If they can read, they need a quiet time. I highly recommend the Discover 4 Yourself studies for children 8-12 or so.
9. Purpose to get up. "Surely, any woman with any passion for anything makes sure she gets up to enjoy that passion!"
10. Aim for more time. Two principles she shares, "Something is better than nothing and Always aim for more."

My prayer for you is that time with God is a priority for you or becomes so. Treasure it. Cherish it. Live it.

pic from: http://blueeyedennis-siempre.blogspot.com/2010_02_01_archive.html

(Surviving) The Curriculum Fair

Going to a bookfair? Overwhelmed? Make a plan! Here's a great, free planning tool from Donna Young. I'm going solo to the bookfair this year. They have doubled the price for adults since last year. What is up with that? I'd love to send a message that that is ridiculous, but I really want to go - so the message I'm sending is that only 1 of the 4 that normally go is going. So there! (stomping foot on ground). Not sure how effective that will be.

Anyhoo.

(Surviving) The Curriculum Fair

Systems for Sanity: Kitchen Day: Part 1

Part of the Kitchen Day will be spent focusing on some major kitchen chores. Most of these chores will be weekly and a few of them will be monthly. I sat down with the children this morning and talked about what chores they felt were necessary for a clean kitchen after having made quite a list myself. I was surprised that they actually came up with things I hadn't thought of.

Since creating this file, I have thought of a few more things and added them in pencil (a BIG step for me). I'm including the pdf version and the word version for you to tweak and make your own.

This will look different for you than it does for me. Your husband may have preferences that aren't on our list. You may have preferences that aren't on our list. To each his own - don't get bogged down in looking like someone else.

To start making my home management binder, I printed a sheet with the day of the week and then what area we are focusing on - one for each day/area. Then I am adding things in pencil that I want to accomplish or do that day. I'm printing out chores or meal plans, etc. to go behind each of these days/areas. I can go back and redo things later, make them prettier, update, etc, but the point is to just get them down and in the binder so that we have a reference point to what the week should look like.

When I am feeling like a crazy woman and don't know what "the next thing" is, I can go to the binder and "do the next thing."

When I asked Pete what area he wanted me to focus on, his preference was to streamline meals and meal time. That's what I'm working on so I'm filling in the gaps on my blog in case it is helpful to some of you.

Systems for Sanity: The Weekly Plan

This won't be news to anyone with a large family, but I'll say it anyway. Kim Benneman of Large Family Logistics blog has written a book with a ton of her years of wisdom and learning; under the same name.

I used to read Kim's blog and then it went away when she was dealing with the premature birth of one of her babies. I never fully implemented her system because I have a hard time reading on the web for long periods of time and I didn't really care for printing out large portions of her blog. I'm a cheapskate with some things.

So glad to have this book. What an incredible investment for our family. I'll save the details for Kim to share with you when you purchase her book, but the jist of it is to have a plan for your week where you are focusing on one area of your home each day. I'm a categorizer by nature so this is perfect for me.

Here is our plan:

Sunday - The Lord's Day
Monday - Laundry Day
Tuesday - Office Day (Planning Day)
Wednesday  - Town Day
Thursday - Kitchen Day
Friday - Cleaning Day/Camping/Field trips
Saturday - Garden/Farm Day

More on each area as we go...

Systems for Sanity: Quiet Times: Part 1

I think I'm going to blog my way through the journey that Pete and I are going on. I figure that the Lord is showing us mighty things and they might be helpful to someone else. Please know that this is going to look different for each person and I expect that you will take direction directly from the Lord and not from me. This is just here if you need a little more inspiration after the Holy Spirit has led you.

Quiet time is a necessary part of a Christian woman's day. This is non-optional and vital for a growing relationship with the Lord.

That said... I am a planner and I like to have a plan for my mornings when I'm expecting to have a wonderful visit with the Lord. I have to make lists when I finally get together with my dear friend Tanya. Likewise I like to come to the Lord in an orderly way - praise, time in the Word, and prayer. I've already been talking about praise and music and I'll get back to blogging about that when I get a clear go-ahead from the Lord.

The idea I am about to share came from Elizabeth George in her book Life Management for Busy Women (excellent book, by the way). It is a Quiet Time Calendar and the idea is that you will fill in the box corresponding with the date each morning during your quiet time. The goal is that you will build a solid line through the months as you meet with the Lord, your very best friend, each morning.

I didn't want to copy it out of the book so I built my own to go in my new 1/2 size binder (purchased for $5 at Mardel). I'm sharing it with you here in Word format and PDF.

Printing on card-stock is ideal because you will (hopefully) be using this 365 times - let's be honest and realistic - 250? And if you happen to be thinking that you don't own 1/2 size paper, you just take your paper fold it in half, lick, fold, lick, tear - the old fashioned way. :)

This is all in conjunction with the Maximize Your Mornings Challenge that Kat just posted. And since I want to encourage you to maximize your mornings in the Word of God, I'm going to bed right now so that I can maximize mine. Night.