Laines Letters...Revisited!

I had written a full page on saving food last week, but my little guy accidentally deleted it moments before I was to send it out. Ahh, such is life, yes! He felt so bad, but I knew God is in control of what goes out and when on this list, so here we are back again this week to share with you how I save money on my food shopping. My food budget for the month is $260. This is for a family of six with three eating as men. (My teenagers eat the same amount as my husband.) And also my dad, who lives next door, stopping in at dinner time for a chat and a bite to eat. ~Smile~ I will be sharing with you many ways that I save money on food. I think it was meant to be quite a bit of work to save money as revealed in this verse: "She is like the merchant ships, she brings her food from afar." Proverbs 31:14 Notice, it is ships in plural. Not just one merchant ship, but many merchant ships. There is a lot of work going on here. A lot of learning and growing as well. I think these...

As women we are prone naturally to fear. That is why the end of verse six in 1 Peter 3 ( in speaking of Sarah) says "...whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror." As women of God we are told more than once in the Word of God that we are to do good. And in so doing, we are not to fear. Fear is a tool in satan's hand to get a woman to stop doing good. Fear freezes. Faith frees. Faith is the tool God uses to help a woman continue to do more and more good. "Without faith, it is impossible to please Him." With faith, not only do we please Him, but we are much more fruitful for Him. Because we recognize Whom we serve and are not afraid. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" And as His Servants, He will see that we receive all we need, to do all that He has called us to do. "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." And "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Even though our role m...

Dear Sisters, I wanted to write in on the topic of the week before it passed by to the next topic. It is such a good topic! How I love to share God's Word with my children. I try to do this every week day and to have a time of prayer with them as well. We also memorize Scripture together. We finished memorizing a passage in 1 Peter last week and this week we are working on Romans 8:1-3. ( We are presently finishing up Acts in our Bible studying). All of my children memorize Scripture, even my five year old. I love the verse where Paul mentions Timothy knowing the Word of God since his infancy, so I try to do the same with my children. Does my husband get involved? More and more as I have just quietly done the job. Because if I hadn't, it would not have been done due to my husband's work load. So I encourage my husband because he gets up early now to spend time in God's Word himself, and he takes our children to church faithfully on Wednesday nights and Saturday and...

There is nothing like the love of God. I cannot get over it. I hope I never get over it. His love is more awesome than I could ever describe. You know what? I remember when I thought God was out to punish me. You see, I was raised in a religion. A religion is consistently trying to please God through action after action. Well, basically, it is The Law. The only problem is one is never quite sure when they've done enough to please God and if indeed He is adequately satisfied. They feel they deserve his punishment rather than His love. Another person in the religion has differing opinions as to what will really please God, so there is quite a bit of confusion among the religious followers. Now wait a minute. Doesn't that describe the Pharisees and the religious leaders during the time of Christ? How thankful I am that God pulled me out of a religion and into a love relationship with Him. I will never forget when I went to a Christian camp as a young child. My mom sent me there...

Dear Sisters, "She girds herself with strength; and strengthens her arms. Proverbs 31:17 I have been enjoying my fall cleaning. Every time I sat down to write to you about it, I felt the nudge to keep doing it. So I would put aside my letter to you all and keep going. It has been a lot of fun doing more each day. As I have wrote to you before, organization is not my strong point. That is why I tend to be a pack rat. It is much easier to store something away to "think about later," than it is to put it where it should go in the first place. The LORD has been helping me to become more orderly in my home. He has helped me this past week in the most unusual ways. The first one was last Tuesday when my oldest son, Quincy, said he was in the mood to clean my back room off the kitchen. This is the worse room in my house. There is hardly any room to walk back there due to my inefficiency in organization. I looked at Quincy in amazement and said, "Yes!" He proc...

Dear Sisters, I hope you are enjoying the New Year. We've made some changes already this year, and it is so good to see what the LORD is doing in our lives and in our home. He is abundantly good to His children. This verse is so true, isn't it? "You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance." Psalm 65:11 Last year it was so, and this year it will be so as well. May we have eyes to see His incredible goodness in our every day lives. As many of you know, we are experiencing an electrical increase in our area of California. This past month our electrical bill was $275. (This is without the 9% increase due to begin next week.) I was sick when the bill came in, and I didn't feel any better reading it. But as I lay there, it gave me ample time to pray about it all. When I got back on my feet, we took some necessary actions and shut down our water heater and refrigerator. We bought a small 5.7 cubic foot refrigerator without a freezer...

Dear Sisters, Your letters move me so. We must have some of the sweetest women in all the world on our list. I so often pray that God will only bring those He wants here. So I never push my writings on anyone. I trust God to do His work and to bring whomever He wants here. I want to help those that He wants me to help with the help that He has given me. I can claim nothing, but I can exalt Him in everything. And I pray that you find that so here. This week I received so many heartfelt letters. I am so sorry for your pain. So many of you wrote of your pain. Physical pain. Emotional pain. Spiritual pain. My heart goes out to you. But having experienced physical, emotional, and spiritual pain myself; I can say with confidence that it is never for naught in the believer's life. As in Job's life, there is something more deeper going on here than first realized. God is drawing His Own to Himself. Pain is a tool in His Hand that does more than we could ever imagine. It is n...

Dear Sisters, I have always had trouble keeping my freezer organized. I just have the usual small freezer over my refrigerator, but it was always a mess. Finally I have a good plan going that has worked for a while so I thought I could share it with a bit of confidence. Just a bit, mind you! ~Smile~ For I do hope it stays neat and organized. Anyways this is what I did. I took everything out and wiped it all down. ( I worked with gardening gloves to remove everything which was easier on my hands and allowed me to do a better job.) Then I made a little "map" of my freezer. As I put things back, I marked it on my map. For example, all the vegetables went on the lowest shelf and were marked where they went and what shelf. Then the chicken went to the left, the ground beef in the middle, and any other meats on the right. I marked it on my map as I put it in the freezer. On the door went any frozen fruit. Now before I open the freezer I just look at my map to see what is on...

Dear Sisters, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my LORD for Whose sake I have lost all things." Philipians 3:8 What does it mean to me to be a Titus 2 woman? Oh, ladies, it means a lot, a lot of love in Jesus Christ! How I pray for this kind of love in thought and action. "I love you, LORD, my strength." Psalms 18:1 I respond to Him Who first loved me. When I fall in love with Him, He affects my strength. When I keep my eyes firmly fixed on the Author and Finisher of my faith, what a difference in my day to day living. He simply infuses it with His Love and His Strength. Truly I am so in awe of my LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ. Truly I am so thankful to my Father for sending Him and giving us His Holy Spirit. And His Word is a rich, rich well that pulls me back day by day with such thirst. I cannot thank Him enough. When I read that someone would want to be like me, I know without a doubt that this ...