New Blog....Again!!

Hello everyone!  I know I haven't posted on this blog in a very long time.  Awhile ago I started a new blog on Wordpress, and was going to delete this blog.  I had the other blog for awhile, and then our lives became very crazy.  We had a death in the family, another pregnancy/new baby, and many other happenings, that caused me to stop blogging altogether.  Because of so many changes in our lives in the last year (again), I decided to come back to Blogspot and start a whole new blog from scratch.  The name of the new blog is Twenty Shoes, and I would LOVE any of my previous followers from this blog (and my former Wordpress blog) to join me at the new blog!
I plan to make this new blog all about life in general for our family of now 10!  I hope to keep up with this blog better than my previous one, and I hope that friends and family will find it a great way to keep up with what our family is doing on at least a weekly basis!
So...come on over to www.twentyshoes.blogspot.com, to keep up with what is happening with the Babler Family!

Have a great day...and I hope to talk to you soon!

BLOG IS MOVING!!!! PLEASE JOIN ME AT THE NEW BLOG!!

Hello to my faithful readers, or those who have just recently found me. I wanted to tell everyone that I have decided to merge my family and homeschool blog into one! I have been developing another blog, and although it isn't completely done yet...it's done enough to start directing people over there. I will now write all posts about all aspects of life over there!!
I'm praying that anyone who genuinely reads and is blessed by anything I write will come on over and subscribe to my new blog! I tell more about my decision to move on the introductory post of my new blog!
I hope to see you over here at my new blog http://www.principledfamily.wordpress.com/.
Gods Blessings to you all!

Elizabeth :-)

In His Word Wednesday- LOWLINESS OF MIND

Philippians 2:3 "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself."

If you really take the time to analyze this verse..it is full of conviction. The key words in this verse (in my opinion) are NOTHING, SELFISH AMBITION, VAIN CONCEIT, and LOWLINESS OF MIND. These are the words that really bring conviction to my life. I think when you grow up in church and in a Christian home, it becomes easy to just gloss over the scriptures, and think..."yep, that's nice", or "I could probably do better on that...starting tomorrow". Something I have been convicted about recently, is serious study and meditation on the scriptures. To really let it sink in to my core. It's a scary thing, because it's when we do this that the genuine conviction occurs, and we KNOW that we need to repent. Repentance isn't fun...our human nature has wired us to not want to admit our mistakes.

So, as I analyze this verse, and look to truly study what God is telling me here....it certainly brings its conviction!

First we look at the premise of SELFISH AMBITION and VAIN CONCEIT. What does that mean exactly. I pull out my trusty Websters 1828 dictionary (the only one I trust for true original meanings), and I see that SELFISH means: "regarding one's own interest chiefly or solely; influenced in actions by a view to private advantage. AMBITION means: to go about or seek by making interest. The word ambition has its origin in the practice of a Roman candidate for office who went about the city to solicit votes. So we see that selfish ambition together means to go around seeking your own interest chiefly or solely, acting out your own private advantage.

VAIN means: empty, worthless, having no substance or value, fruitless, inefectual, proud of pretty things, or of trifiling attainments, elated with a high opinion of ones accomplishments or with things more showy than valuable., unreal , showy, unsatisfying, False. CONCEIT means: That which is conceived, imagined, or formed in the mind, idea thought image. Understanding, power or faculty of conceiving, apprehension. Opinion, notion, fancy, imagination, Pleasant, gayety of imagination. A striking thought; affected or unnatural conception. Favorable or self flattering opinion.

So, VAIN CONCEIT means: Any empty, worthless, fruitless, inefectual, high opinionated of yourself, unreal, showy, or unsatisfying thought formed in your mind, imagination, understanding, apprehension, opinion, notion, or fancy.

Now, God is telling us that we should do NOTHING out of these two things. What does NOTHING mean? Well....it means nothing...not one thing, not anything. That is easy to gloss over, but it really means absolutely nothing. Nothing includes well....anything you can think of. It includes going to church, it includes washing the dishes, it includes buying gifts, giving to others, blogging (ouch right), homeschooling, reading, training our children, watching tv, playing video games, making a sandwhich....etc...etc. I could obviously go on and on about what it means to not do anything with VAIN AMBITION or SELFISH CONCEIT, but I think you get the idea...as did I when I was studying this further.

Now, God doesn't ever leave us hanging with the negative...what does he tell us to do. Do everything with LOWLINESS OF MIND, and esteem others better then ourselves. LOWLINESS means: Freedom from pride, humility, humbleness of mind. Now, I would love to go on with this and share with you the definitions of humility, but I will let you do that on your own. So, HUMILITY OF MIND, a mind FREE from PRIDEFUL thoughts is what God wants us to replace this vain ambition of selfish conceit with.

WOW...this is quite a thing God asks us to do here. EVERYTHING we do should be for His sake, and the sake of others. We should do nothing for our own sake, with our own AMBITION in mind. Our minds should be cleansed from pride and selfishness, as should our actions.

Is this even possible? I think it is! We can do all things through Christ, when He lives in us. It is a daily choice that has to be made, to allow His Spirit to bring this out in us. It's something that I have a long way to go in...but I will definitely be contemplating the ways that I can grow in this area.

I would love to hear any further thoughts on this verse, and how to work towards applying them to our lives.

Join Megan for more In His Word Wednesday, and my prayer request for the day is to be able to more affective in living out this command from my Lord! Help me to be all that you want me to be Lord...not for myself, and my own furtherence, but only for Your Glory...AMEN!!

Welcome to 2010!

Hi all and Happy New Year! First of all, I hope that everyone had a blessed Christmas! As always, the start of a New Year has been a time of reflection for me on what I can do better, and what I can change altogether. I like to make goals for myself every year. I generally put them into categories. Spiritual Goals, Personal Goals, Physical Goals, Parenting Goals, Homeschool Goals. I won't tell you every single one of my goals or "resolutions" as many call them...but I will share some of them.

Spiritual Goals

1) Be closer to God through more regular quiet time with him!

2) Seek to share Christ with more people this year than I did last.

3) Use Philippians 4:8 as a guide to what I do, watch, listen to, etc..

4) Seek to have a meek and quiet spirit.

Personal Goals

1) Look for more ways to serve others this year.

2) Spend time blogging at least 4 times a week.

3) Spend a little time weekly working on relearning my violin.

4) Take a picture every day for my 365 project

5) Look for a way every day to show Rob that I appreciate him.

6) Find a time to do something no matter how little every day one on one with each of my kids.

7) Get and stay organized

Physical Goals

1) Lose at least 25 pounds before I get pregnant again ;-) through exercising at least 5 days a week, and watching my calories more closely.

2) drink more water daily.

3) Be in shape so that I have energy to keep up with everything I need to do.

4) Try to keep myself looking nice daily for my husband instead of looking sloppy.

Parenting Goals/Homeschool Goals (to save a little time I will put these together)

1) Speak more quietly and gently to my older children (no sarcasm)

2) Be consistent with my little ones (stop what I'm doing to correct..even when I don't feel like it)

3) Be consistent with grading and recording their school work (giving them daily feedback on their work)

4) Make sure they see me working and learning as well on a daily basis (don't sit on Facebook while expecting them to be working hard!)

5) Make sure I have everything planned and ready for them to go in the mornings so as not to waste time.

6) NEVER skip time in the Word for the sake of academics...keep priorities straight!

These are the things that I will be working on this New Year. I have verses written out for many of these, to memorize and help me stay on track, but for now as I get ready to go to bed....if you haven't yet thought about what you want to work on this year..let me encourage you that it is never too late! As a Christian I am called to do everything heartily as unto the Lord, and each new year that God gives us is an opportunity to start fresh, to recognize our sins of the previous year, repent and move forward with His Holy Spirit to guide us! If we aim at nothing...we will hit it every time! I hope to be able to come back to you this time next year and tell you that I mastered at least a couple of these goals...for the glory of my Lord! Blessed New Year to all of you, and if you get a chance I would love to hear about what you all are working on for the upcoming year.

In His Word Wednesday- Renewing your Mind!

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God. Romans 12:2

This verse has taken new meaning to me here recently, as our family is sort of on a mission of revival and renewing all our minds. I recently did a word study on the word renew, to gain a better understanding of what it means to renew our minds. Some interesting ideas came of it. Some of the words that are main ideas included in the meaning of the word renew are to rebuild, to repeat, to revive, to repair, to confirm, to renovate! If you then take these words and break them down by their meanings, it really gives you a picture of what God is telling us when He says He wants our minds to be renewed! I won't go into all the different meanings here (although I may share them on my homeschool blog), but let me tell you...I had pages worth of info on what it means to renew your mind! God wants our minds to be filled with Him. He wants to revive us back to Him, to rebuild our minds with thoughts that are pleasing and Holy. He wants to renovate our thinking into what will be useful for His Glory. We all know that what we think in our mind...comes out in our actions and attitudes. I don't know about you, but for me it is easy to overlook my mind, and focus only on the outward behavior. Well, as long as what I think doesn't come out in my actions, I'm ok. But, Christ gave us a different picture. He told us that when we look at a woman to lust, it is adultery, when we have hatred in our hearts, it is murder! Our thoughts and our actions are one in the same to the Lord. When you think about it, we really need to recognize our thoughts as sin, and repent of them the same we would for the action itself. God wants us to take our thoughts captive, and allow Him to fill them up with Him! This has been a very convicting study for me, and yet, very refreshing, in knowing that with God all things are possible. We can capture our thoughts, and allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds!

Please join Megan today for more In His Word Wednesday....and if you have never done a word study in your study of the Bible...I highly recommend trying it! If you have any questions about it, I would be happy to pass on how I go about it! It will really help you to meditate further on what God is communicating to us in His word!!

New Business!!

Yesterday as an exciting day for us! I wanted to go yesterday and get our official DBA (officializing our new business!) because yesterday was the one year anniversary of the day that our little foster daughter left us! I wanted what was a very sad anniversary for our family to become a happy day for us. We know that God works all things out for good to those who love Him, and I wanted this sad day to be overshadowed by something good! So....we are now an official photography business recognized by our state and Uncle Sam!

If you had asked me several years ago if I would be a small photography business owner...I would have laughed my head off! This whole process was entirely a God thing! Our goals are different than many photography businesses in that we want to make some profit off of it, but more importantly we want to be a blessing to others through the talent that God has given us! We are being uncovential in our discounts for pastors, military, missionary, and homeschool families for photoshoots. We are also keeping our overall prices generally lower than those of many who do the same kind of photography. I've been warned not to do that, by professionals who want me to value my work. Although I do generally want to be paid for my time away from family during photoshoots, and for the time spent editing images, I don't want the prices to be so cumbersome that the average family could never conceive of hiring me. If this was a make or break income for our family, I would likely reconsider the pricing, but in my mind, God has given me this gift of photography, and I don't want to be steeped in pride about what I have done! I know many people will call us crazy when we choose to give freebies, or discounts on our work, but we feel that if we are not being a blessing to others through this business, then we are not doing it for the Lord...we are only doing it for ourselves!

We are excited about this new crossroads in the life of our family, and look forward to getting the kids involved in it as they grow older (they are already great photography students, and my Ethan loves to help me edit!). This is what we love about being a homeschool family, in that we can enjoy these adventures in what God is doing in our lives with our children!

So...if you have not already seen or been a part of our new business, you can find out more about what we are doing in several different places. You can fan our Facebook page, which you can see to the right of this post. Or you can visit our Smugmug site here: Smug Mug Or...you can start following our blog here: Blog Or....you can visit our still a work in progress website here: Website. If you follow our other blogs already you will see this same post in all places. I apologize for the redundancy, but it will be easier for me to share this all at once.

We are not only selling nature and scripture prints through Smugmug now, but we are also set up to start doing family photoshoots, senior pictures, engagement pictures, and special outdoor events whenever the weather is warm enough here in Southwest Michigan, Northern Indiana!

I hope that we can find a way to bless all of you in the coming years through this gift that God has blessed our family with!!

I Miss my Blogging, and exciting news!

Hi all. I basically was just wanting to pop in and say hi, because my poor blogs have been so horribly neglected ever since the school year started! The big excitement around here has been that we are very close to opening up our own official photography business. This has been entirely a God thing, and we feel very blessed (and sometimes terrified), that He has brought this opportunity into our lives.

We have been selling scripture prints, and are finally preparing to expand into a family photography business as well! We have set up a Facebook fan page, and have acquired a smugmug account, which I am excited about. You can find that here: http://blessingsphotography.smugmug.com/.

I really hope that I find the time to get back into some of my blogging, as I still enjoy doing it very much. I hope that all my friends here in blogworld are well, and that God is remaining in the center of all of your lives! I am thankful for all of you, and I thank you also for all the prayers for my Dad, as he is doing really well!!